This story is part of State of Emergency, a Grist series exploring how climate disasters are impacting voting and politics. It is published with support from the CO2 Foundation.
This coverage is also part of a partnership between Grist and BPR, a public radio station serving western North Carolina.
It’s been a little over a month since Hurricane Helene ripped through the southeastern United States, claiming hundreds of lives and causing an estimated $53 billion dollars in damages. In addition to being a record-breaking storm in its own right, Helene was also the first hurricane in American history to hit two battleground states within weeks of a major election.
In North Carolina, one of the seven swing states likely to determine the outcome of the presidential race this week, Helene’s destruction displaced thousands of…
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