When Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina in September 2024, 148 licensed child care centers and homes with more than 5,000 enrolled children were impacted, according to an August 2025 state presentation.
A particularly fragile sector faced a particularly unexpected storm.
“The warnings look different and the response looked different because there wasn’t that community memory of what hurricanes can look like,” said Rooks, who has worked on responses to 14 natural disasters.
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