Business & Government

Advance Planning Now Could Help When the Next Storm Comes

Taking architectural designs and mitigation strategies into account when rebuilding could help flood-ravaged areas of Appalachia in the future, but very little could have stopped the destruction Hurricane Helene wreaked, a University of Virginia architecture professor said.

“I know these mountain communities fairly well, and they have had flooding over the years, but the water level in Asheville was 25 feet,” said Suzanne Moomaw, an associate professor of urban and environmental planning and director of the Community Design Research Center at the UVA School of Architecture.

Governments and citizens need to be involved in plans to rebuild communities, says Suzanne Moomaw, associate professor and director of the Community Design Research Center at the UVA School of Architecture. (Photo by Tom Daly)

“The use of berms and creating some buffers could have helped, but that’s unpopular for blocking of views and that sort of thing,” she said. “But regardless, it’s hard to buffer for 25 feet of floodwater. Real hard.”

Just a week ago, Hurricane Helene interacted with a stationary cold front that had already dropped 4 or more inches of rain, raising many rivers to near flood stage, according to the North Carolina State University Climatology Office. Helene fed on that moisture and added her own, resulting in 33 inches of rain in three days on a mountaintop weather station in Yancey County, North Carolina, and 2 feet of rain on a station at Mount Mitchell.

Across the area, streams became rivers and creeks became torrents, pushing the French Broad River that runs through Asheville to a peak height of 24.67 feet. The cost in lost lives, lost livelihoods and property damage has not been determined.

A house washed down a river in North Carolina

With more than 2 feet of rain falling on nearby mountains, waterways through Old Fort, North Carolina, surged above flood stage, destroying homes and property. (Photo by Apex Fire Department)

“It was close to a worst-case scenario for western North Carolina, as seemingly limitless tropical moisture, enhanced by interactions with the high terrain, yielded some of the highest rainfall totals followed by some of the highest river levels, and the most severe flooding ever observed across the region,” the state climatology website states.

Moomaw said that as the region begins to rebuild, considering land use and architecturally sound mitigation methods could help with future storms and floods.

“I think one of the clear takeaways here is about land use and thinking about how and where we build. There may be some opportunities in western North Carolina because so much of it is part of federal lands that maybe there can be some buffering or measures to prevent extensive mudslides,” she said.

Moomaw said mitigation methods should be considered when rebuilding because it’s likely similar storms will follow in the future. This week, Hurricane Milton formed in the Gulf of Mexico and followed a path similar to Helene’s into Florida, where it dropped more than a foot of rain backed by winds of 90 mph or higher.

“We know that because of global temperature rise, there are going to be more of these storms, and they’re getting more intense every year, so I would start with looking at mitigation measures when rebuilding,” she said.

“But I think the real answer is people coming together to think about it more intensively. How do we leverage federal dollars, state dollars, local dollars and local wisdom?” she said. “It could happen again. I’m just not sure that temporary interventions will take care of the problem.”