CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida in September 2024, North Carolina wasn't bracing for the worst, but the storm's remnants took a deadly turn.

As the system drifted north, it collided with the Appalachian Mountains. Moist air was forced up the slopes — cooling and dumping torrential rain. Scientists call it orographic lift .

Soils in western North Carolina were already saturated from rain, so when the storm parked over the region, some communities saw 1,000-year floods with rivers bursting their banks, landslides wiping out roads, and entire towns cut off.

In the end, it wasn't strong winds but heavy flooding that claimed the lives of more than 100 people in North Carolina, mostly in mountain counties.

Helene's path is a reminder that even when a storm hi

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