As historic floodwaters unleashed by Hurricane Helene recede across the U.S. Southeast, the region faces a humanitarian, economic and ecological crisis of staggering scope, with effects likely to last years.
Cotton crops on the verge of harvest have been flattened. Sewage and industrial chemicals have poured into swollen rivers. Key pieces of the power grid have been destroyed. Chicken flocks in some of the country’s largest poultry-producing states have drowned. Mines that produce high-quality quartz for computer chips remain closed.
And the toll in human lives keeps rising, with more than 150 confirmed dead across six states and countless others displaced. The federal government reported 29 shelters open, with more than 1,000 occupants.
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