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Washed-out section of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Image source: National Park Service
Last week I spoke of my morose dread that when Hurricane Helene passed through the Atlanta suburbs, my house would be uprooted and start spinning in the air Wizard of Oz-style, but we survived with little more than a thorough soaking.
To nearly everyone’s surprise, the area that wound up getting crushed to bits was North Carolina’s western hill country. It used to be that coastal North Carolina towns such as Cape Hatteras and Cape Fear needed to batten down the hatches during hurricane season, but not this time. (more…)