Amanda Rosa of Extreme Weather Survivors discusses Helene recovery and weather-related disasters

It’s been two years now since Hurricane-turned-Tropical Storm Helene devastated a large swath of the southeastern United States, including much of western North Carolina. But as anyone paying even a little attention is painfully aware, Helene was just one of a growing array of weather-driven disasters to impact our world in recent years. What’s more, as the impacts of climate change and continued expansion of human development into once natural areas continues, the potential impacts of these disasters – storms, wildfires, floods, extreme heat, deadly air pollution, drought – are only going to get worse unless society takes several swift and decisive actions.

Of course, one necessary predicate to action is for average people and their leaders to fully grasp the severity of the problem and, in particular, the havoc that weather-driven natural disasters can wreak. And to this important end, a new nonprofit has emerged in recent years that aims to shed a light on these hard truths while at the same time providing a pathway for the millions of people impacted by extreme weather events to share their stories with similarly affected people, and find a measure of healing. The group, appropriately enough, is called Extreme Weather Survivors. And recently to mark the anniversary of the Helene disaster, the group was in western North Carolina to highlight the huge recovery challenges that remain. And this past week, Newsline caught up with the organization’s Director of Outreach, Amanda Rosa.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Amanda Rosa.