'Nowhere is safe now' Shattered Asheville shows long reach of climate crisis

Nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina and far from any coast, Asheville was touted as a haven from extreme weather. Now the historic city has been devastated and cut off by Hurricane Helene's catastrophic flood waters, in a stunning display of the climate crisis's unlimited reach in the United States.

- Oliver Milman

Helene, which crunched into the western Florida coast as a category 4 hurricane on Thursday, brought carnage to a stretch of that state that has experienced three such storms in the past 13 months, flattening coastal homes and tossing boats inland.

But as the storm, with winds peaking at 140mph, carved a path northwards, it mangled places in several states that have never seen such impacts, obliterating small towns, hurling trees on to homes, unmooring houses to float in flood water, plunging millions of people into power blackouts and turning major roads into rivers.

At least 130 people have died across five states, with nearly a third of the deaths occurring in the county containing Asheville, a city of historic architecture where new residents had flocked amid estate agents' promises of a place that offered a reprieve from "crazy" extreme weather.

Now, flooding has severed major roads into the city and phone reception, fuel and food are scarce. The water supply and the roads are expected to be affected for weeks. It is, said Roy Cooper, North Carolina's governor, an "unprecedented tragedy".