Dubai Telegraph - A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand

EUR -
AED 3.865039
AFN 71.961868
ALL 97.885367
AMD 409.705534
ANG 1.898038
AOA 960.733931
ARS 1055.061215
AUD 1.613881
AWG 1.894109
AZN 1.787029
BAM 1.951539
BBD 2.126437
BDT 125.855234
BGN 1.956342
BHD 0.396578
BIF 3110.579445
BMD 1.052283
BND 1.414399
BOB 7.293078
BRL 6.086683
BSD 1.053191
BTN 88.848028
BWP 14.387453
BYN 3.446543
BYR 20624.740218
BZD 2.122845
CAD 1.469502
CDF 3014.78969
CHF 0.929776
CLF 0.037101
CLP 1023.776253
CNY 7.619996
CNH 7.625593
COP 4626.455438
CRC 534.824751
CUC 1.052283
CUP 27.885491
CVE 110.024795
CZK 25.350861
DJF 187.538784
DKK 7.458788
DOP 63.520417
DZD 140.573397
EGP 52.274979
ERN 15.78424
ETB 131.306162
FJD 2.388363
FKP 0.830585
GBP 0.832524
GEL 2.883571
GGP 0.830585
GHS 16.7185
GIP 0.830585
GMD 74.71233
GNF 9078.051459
GTQ 8.13025
GYD 220.338958
HKD 8.189863
HNL 26.613518
HRK 7.506205
HTG 138.346648
HUF 411.186809
IDR 16734.714279
ILS 3.929639
IMP 0.830585
INR 88.911049
IQD 1379.588093
IRR 44293.214291
ISK 145.520299
JEP 0.830585
JMD 166.933965
JOD 0.746386
JPY 162.676061
KES 136.007134
KGS 91.02957
KHR 4249.68174
KMF 491.94202
KPW 947.053999
KRW 1471.222726
KWD 0.323672
KYD 0.877684
KZT 523.167824
LAK 23125.51255
LBP 94319.785398
LKR 306.411046
LRD 190.622024
LSL 19.101997
LTL 3.107117
LVL 0.636515
LYD 5.138732
MAD 10.521031
MDL 19.167154
MGA 4930.189594
MKD 61.546561
MMK 3417.773046
MNT 3575.656436
MOP 8.443666
MRU 41.866002
MUR 48.839087
MVR 16.268296
MWK 1826.195708
MXN 21.380416
MYR 4.698412
MZN 67.293799
NAD 19.101997
NGN 1768.455747
NIO 38.755022
NOK 11.613586
NPR 142.154623
NZD 1.792324
OMR 0.40513
PAB 1.053101
PEN 3.996674
PGK 4.239684
PHP 62.126243
PKR 292.773138
PLN 4.342422
PYG 8247.914831
QAR 3.840515
RON 4.977085
RSD 117.020141
RUB 106.281009
RWF 1452.315514
SAR 3.95054
SBD 8.79238
SCR 14.332083
SDG 632.944958
SEK 11.610939
SGD 1.413951
SHP 0.830585
SLE 23.75528
SLL 22065.84631
SOS 601.88026
SRD 37.282669
STD 21780.126598
SVC 9.214882
SYP 2643.891613
SZL 19.091139
THB 36.458458
TJS 11.216013
TMT 3.682989
TND 3.324243
TOP 2.464553
TRY 36.27081
TTD 7.130433
TWD 34.270209
TZS 2791.031424
UAH 43.426878
UGX 3886.514989
USD 1.052283
UYU 45.021709
UZS 13526.469111
VES 48.861031
VND 26751.65603
VUV 124.929112
WST 2.937543
XAF 654.521833
XAG 0.033884
XAU 0.000395
XCD 2.843846
XDR 0.801343
XOF 654.521833
XPF 119.331742
YER 262.991742
ZAR 19.064031
ZMK 9471.810193
ZMW 29.146091
ZWL 338.834589
  • RBGPF

    59.6900

    59.69

    +100%

  • CMSC

    -0.0450

    24.52

    -0.18%

  • NGG

    -0.3100

    63.27

    -0.49%

  • SCS

    -0.0200

    13.07

    -0.15%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0800

    6.61

    -1.21%

  • CMSD

    -0.0836

    24.26

    -0.34%

  • RELX

    -0.1800

    45.11

    -0.4%

  • RIO

    -0.0400

    62.39

    -0.06%

  • GSK

    -0.1100

    33.35

    -0.33%

  • AZN

    -0.6000

    63.2

    -0.95%

  • BTI

    0.1500

    37.08

    +0.4%

  • JRI

    -0.0300

    13.23

    -0.23%

  • BCC

    -0.7700

    137.41

    -0.56%

  • BP

    -0.0100

    29.08

    -0.03%

  • BCE

    -0.3100

    27

    -1.15%

  • VOD

    0.0200

    8.94

    +0.22%

A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand / Photo: Allison Joyce - AFP

A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand

Carl Schreck spent his career studying tropical storms thousands of miles away from home.

Text size:

But when Hurricane Helene hit the American climate scientist's hometown in North Carolina and flooded several of his friends' homes, the shocking experience made him rethink his research priorities.

"I know how devastating the rainfall in hurricanes can be, but like to actually know people... that are affected by it -- it is, it's really heartbreaking to see," Schreck told AFP from his home near Ashville, the epicenter of the disaster that ravaged the southeastern United States.

As another major hurricane, Milton, was barrelling toward Florida, a study released Wednesday by the respected World Weather Attribution concluded that Helene's destructive force was exacerbated by climate change.

Schreck, a scholar at the Institute for Climate Studies at North Carolina State University, and his colleagues had been studying Helene's formation in the Caribbean for days -- until it pummeled Asheville on September 26-27.

Several of Schreck's friends saw their houses destroyed, while a family he knew died in the flooding.

"It's been over 100 years since we've seen something like this," said Schreck, whose own house was spared. "So it's been a very tragic experience for our community."

- 'Irony' -

With at least 230 people killed, Helene is the second deadliest hurricane to hit the continental United States in more than half a century after Katrina, which ravaged the state of Louisiana in 2005, claiming nearly 1,400 lives.

But amid the immense material damage, another misfortune befell the community in Asheville: a major climate data center, which shares the building with Schreck's facility, lost power in the storm, and its crucial data is currently inaccessible to scientists worldwide.

"That's one of the real ironies of this event," said Schreck. "We collect all of the world's weather and climate data right here in Asheville, going back more than 100 years, and power was cut off to that."

Emergency workers are having to pump water into the center's water cooling system from a fire truck to cool down the computers.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which manages the center, says it is working "to minimize the risk of any potential data loss," but gives no timeline for when the center will resume operations.

- Communicate better? -

As soon as cellphone service was restored in the region following Helene, Schreck and his colleagues got to work.

"There has been a lot of discussion about, like, what does this mean for climate change?" Schreck recalled. "What's going on with our community? Why was this so severe? How could we have communicated it better?"

Although Helene struck Florida first, it was in the Appalachian mountains more than 500 kilometers from the coast where the vast majority of deaths occurred, mainly due to torrential flooding.

Inland rainfall, "is one of the most dangerous parts of a hurricane that usually doesn't get enough attention," he said. "And that's something that's... getting worse with climate change."

"I've always been really interested in how hurricanes affect rainfall and flooding," he added. "So that's something I'm really gonna be looking at even more going forward."

S.Al-Balushi--DT