Mohamed and Nehal said their street near Boone turned into a river when Hurricane Helene dumped rain on the region last September. Their apartment flooded, along with all of their belongings. Among the Egyptian family’s losses were the trusty vehicles they relied on for work. “They were flooded to the roof,” Mohamed said. “There was…

Pastor Charles English was at home with one of his daughters when Ivy Creek became a torrent of boulders, trees, and exploding propane tanks—common elements for most stories about Hurricane Helene’s destructive path through the mountains. Charles and his wife, Sadie, have lived five decades in Barnardsville, North Carolina, along a normally idyllic branch of…

Thick, black smoke was moving in rapidly. Pastor Erik Naylor of Maui, Hawaii, could hardly see more than a few feet in front of him, and he felt the heat as homes around him started to catch on fire. But when he and a neighbor looked across the street, they saw that the Lahaina Baptist…