By Liz Carey for The Daily Yonder.
Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for Kentucky News Connection for the Daily Yonder-Public News Service Collaboration

In the wake of Hurricane Helene flooding areas of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, a new research study hopes to not only determine what causes flash flooding in the mountainous areas of Appalachia, but how to prepare residents for coming disasters.

In 2022, flash floods hit the hills of eastern Kentucky leaving in their wake, millions of dollars of devastation. A new research project at the University of Kentucky hopes to dive into what happened during that event and how planners can use that information to be better prepared in the future.

The four-year project will look at flash flooding in the small headwater streams in Appalachia. Part of a $77.8 million investment by the National Science Foundation into infrastructure improvements in the face of climate change, the study will bring together researchers from UK, the University of Louisville, Eastern Kentucky University, West Virginia University and Marshall University. Using sensors in streams and data from the Robison Forest, a teaching, research and extension forest in the Cumberland Plateau, researchers use the information they gather to identify specific issues related to flash floods.

Kenton Sena, Ph.D., co-principal investigator and lecturer at UK, said sensors in the forest have been accumulating data for more than 50 years. The data will help them dig deeper into the temperatures, precipitation and weather conditions prior to flooding events which can lead to a better understanding of flooding scenarios. While national weather data can give researchers a daily precipitation amount, he said, the data from the Robinson Forest can give them hourly precipitation amounts.

“We can get a little bit more information out of the data like what kind of storm was this, was this a really intense thunderstorm where it rained cats and dogs for three hours and then stopped, or was this a more chill storm event that lasted for the whole day and was more gentle and less intense, because obviously the watershed will respond differently to those different scenarios with respect to flooding,” he said in an interview with the Daily Yonder.

Between July 25 and July 29, 2022, eastern Kentucky was hit with what the National Weather Service called the deadliest non-tropical weather event in the U.S. since the 1970s.

The rains started on July 25, but by the next morning, flash flood reports started coming in. Rains in excess of four inches an hour fell across 13 counties, inundating the area with upwards of 16 inches of rain.

By the evening of July 28 buildings, mobile homes and cars were swept down the valley as a wall of water left roads and bridges impassable and some residents trapped on hillsides. In the end, 45 people died and nearly 1,400 required rescuing. All 13 counties were declared federal disaster areas with nearly 9,000 homes damaged or destroyed and hundreds of families relocated to temporary shelters.

In 2023, a report from the Ohio River Valley Institute and Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center found that rebuilding the homes damaged in the 2022 flood would cost about $450 million, but relocating and replacing many of the homes to less flood-prone areas would raise the total to more than $950 million. 

It’s not the first time the area had seen catastrophic flooding. According to a report by the Federal Reserve of Cleveland, the 13 county area has seen flooding 27 times. 

The study may also help scientists better understand flooding in other areas, like the Hurricane Helene disaster in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. In September, tropical storms leftover from Hurricane Helene besieged the Great Smoky Mountains. Already saturated from days of storms prior to Helene’s arrival, some areas received nearly 30 inches of rain causing streams to overflow their banks and take out anything in their path.

The storm left at least 224 dead — 96 from North Carolina and 17 from Tennessee. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Wednesday the storm caused more than $53 billion in damage. The state said the storm and its aftermath caused 1,400 landslides and damaged more than 160 water and sewer systems, 6,000 miles of roads, more than 1,000 bridges and culverts and an estimated 126,000 homes. In his request to the North Carolina legislature, Cooper asked for $3.9 billion to begin the process of rebuilding.

“Helene is the deadliest and most damaging storm ever to hit North Carolina,“ said Cooper. “This storm left a trail of destruction in our beautiful mountains that we will not soon forget, but I know the people of Western North Carolina are determined to build back better than ever.”

While the research can help with planning and prevention in the future, Sena said, the initial goal of the research is to save lives.

“We can look at what if we have a 2-inch rain event in three hours? We can look at what kinds of flood risk we’d be looking at,” he said. “And I think that helps us to build out the kind of predictive framework that we really need in order to move to a phase three which would be an on-the-ground meaningful warning (system) that will hopefully give folks time to evacuate.”

Additionally, he said, the researchers will be able to determine how best to communicate the threats to rural residents in a way that is meaningful to them.

“We’ll be working together… to better understand how the local community members would prefer to receive and distribute that kind of information,” he said. “Whatever we develop will hopefully be useful and ready to implement.”


Liz Carey wrote this article for The Daily Yonder.


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Extreme weather has hit Texas over the last few weeks bringing snow to many parts of the state.

During cold weather, landlords are required to ensure renters have adequate heat. Chapter 27 of the City of Dallas code establishes minimum property standards for all residential buildings, structures and premises.

Ella Caudill, attorney for the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center, said property owners have 24 to 48 hours to correct life-threatening conditions, including heating and cooling problems.

"If they're having heating issues and their landlord is refusing to fix their heater their only option is to go through and file a repair and remedy case," Caudill pointed out. "In order to file one of those they do have to be current on rent."

She added tenants can also fix the problems themselves and hope to get reimbursed by their landlord.

Cities nationwide are looking for ways to address the problems of extreme weather conditions brought on by climate change. Many are requiring landlords to install heat pumps in their buildings.

Vince Romanin, founder and CEO of the heating and cooling company Gradient, noted while it is not mandatory in Texas, the technology is more efficient and easier on the environment.

"A heat pump delivers three to five times as much heat to the room as the energy it spends," Romanin explained. "If you have an electric heater, you spend one unit of electricity and you put one unit of heat into the room. If you have an electric heat pump you can put three to five times as much heat into the room."

He added they are working to integrate the heat pumps with backup generators and battery storage systems in case the Texas power grid fails like it did in 2021.

This story is based on original reporting by Maria Ramos Pacheco for The Dallas Morning News (paywall).


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Faith-based climate activists with the nonprofit GreenFaith are organizing a series of vigils tied to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, hoping to influence the new administration.

Hundreds gathered at vigils this past week in San Diego, San Francisco and cities around the country - and more are planned in Los Angeles and Riverside.

William Morris is a faith organizer with GreenFaith - and urged people to speak out in favor of policies that protect our water, air, soil, and wildlife.

"People of faith are guided by our morals, our conscience, our values," said Morris, "and that we have this obligation and responsibility to speak up about caring for the earth and policies that help protect it."

Find out more about the vigils at greenfaith.org.

The group is circulating a petition asking that the U.S. stay in the Paris Climate Accords, oppose new fossil-fuel projects and deforestation, and promote clean energy.

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to ramp up oil and gas drilling and roll back many of President Joe Biden's climate policies.

He also reportedly pressed oil-company executives to contribute a billion dollars to his campaign.

Morris encouraged people to organize their own public-facing protests going forward.

"It could be on street corners," said Morris. "It could be in community spaces, in front of city halls, or could be in houses of worship. We want people of faith around the country to be able to say that this doesn't line up with our values."

Morris added that, based on the actions of the first Trump administration, GreenFaith is concerned about increased mining, grazing and timber harvesting on public lands.

The group vows to fight any attempt to deregulate toxic chemicals or reduce protections for endangered species.

By María Ramos Pacheco for The Dallas Morning News.
Broadcast version by Freda Ross for Texas News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

Anamelia Jaramillo has lived in Jubilee Park for almost 20 years and is concerned about the heat getting worse every summer.

She fears her air conditioning system failing because her husband has diabetes and can be vulnerable to extreme heat.

“I wish we didn’t have to have the A/C running all day long, but it is impossible to survive in the summer without it,” said Jaramillo, 54, after attending a Zumba class at Jubilee Park on Nov. 11.

In 2023, more than 20 people died in Dallas and Tarrant counties from heat-related illnesses as Texas saw record heat waves and triple-digit temperatures, according to the counties’ medical examiners. The lack of trees and green spaces, such as community gardens and parks, in an urban area contributes significantly to the “urban heat island effect,” as buildings, roads and other hard surfaces absorb and retain more heat.

Dallas’ District 7, where most of the neighborhoods participating in the South Dallas Greening Initiative are located, was ranked the third-highest priority for tree canopy, according to the Dallas Tree Equity Mapping Report published in 2022 by the Texas Trees Foundation.

Districts 4 and 6 ranked as the first and second highest priority for tree canopy, and the organization has been deploying some of their programs to plant more trees in these areas. Early this year, the Texas Trees Foundation released its plan to tackle the lack of trees in the Southwestern Medical District as part of its initiatives to combat the urban heat island effect.

Texas Trees, through the South Dallas Greening Initiative, also is working in the Jubilee neighborhood to address the area’s lack of trees to combat the extreme heat affecting residents’ health and quality of life. The nonprofit is providing thousands of trees to the almost 50,000 residents of Fair Park, Mill City, Queen City, Wheatley Place and adjacent neighborhoods over five years. Jubilee Park is just below Interstate 30 and north of Fair Park.

Chandler Stephens’ father, Calvin Stephens, has owned two vacant lots in South Dallas since the 1980s. The younger Stephens has been talking with Texas Trees about working together on his vision to create a community garden.

Stephens dreams of having a green space in every corner of South Dallas to improve residents’ quality of life.

“I can see [the initiative] as something that will prolong the community’s livelihood. Not only with addressing the urban heat island issue but just by providing greenery,” Stephens said. “Plants and our health is so linked to the health of the earth and the planet.”

The Dallas Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan established protocols for adapting to climate change challenges in 2020. It states that Dallas needs approximately 735,000 trees to reach a goal of 37% tree canopy cover and, specifically, mitigate the urban heat island effect.

Since its founding in 1982, Texas Trees has planted an estimated 1.5 million trees across the Dallas-Fort Worth region. In 2023, the Dallas-based nonprofit secured a $15 million grant from the Reduction Act through the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry program for the South Dallas Greening Initiative.

The project, however, is part of a long-term solution to extreme heat, and many of Jubilee’s residents want to see more.

“I am in favor of the initiative and for them to plant more trees in the area, but we also need help with how to pay the electricity bills,” Jaramillo said.

In any community, including South Dallas, trees may not be at the top of each resident’s list of the needs they see for their community, said Elissa Izmailyan, chief strategy and operations officer with Texas Trees.

“We are showing up with a commitment to help and the ability to offer trees and urban forestry education but realize that we’re entering a landscape where there are a lot of other needs and priorities,” Izmailyan said.

“So first, we need to be sensitive to that broad range of priorities and capacities. Second, we need to think about how our offering intersects with other needs in a way that’s additive.”

The project will have several components beyond planting trees in the community, Izmailyan said.

The first phase has been to reach out to the community and work with nonprofits and organizations in South Dallas to establish a trusting relationship and understand the community’s needs and wants.

That’s where partnerships with local organizations come into play, as well as involvement with community leaders.

The Jubilee Park and Community Center is a nonprofit that works to restore equity and resources for the 3,000 residents of the Jubilee neighborhood. The community center has been around for almost 30 years and offers education, health, food access and after-school programs.

Emily Plauche, Texas Trees’ community greening manager, said the initiative includes an educational component that teaches residents about trees, their benefits, how to care for them, green jobs and other measures that can be taken to combat extreme heat.

“So there’s always going to be other needs or things that arise, too, and we can’t necessarily, with our money, purchase that. But we can help advocate and get the city involved and bring other people to the table who have some of these potential solutions,” Plauche said. “We are deeply committed to the well-being of the community.”

Texas Trees will work with some of the area’s schools to boost green spaces and tree planting on the campuses. The organization already runs a program across the city focusing on schools needing more canopy.

Marissa Castro Mikoy, president and chief executive officer at Jubilee Park, said that over the years Texas Trees has helped plant over 150 trees on their campus, and they can see the benefits to the community, from providing shade to beautifying the park.

Benefits of trees

In April, Dallas shared findings from a study that identified at least 10 neighborhoods as urban heat island spots. Some of these spots have less green space, and the temperature is 10 degrees hotter than in other parts of the city.

Trees can help reduce the urban heat island effect and improve people’s and the environment’s health in several ways.

They provide shade and block incoming solar radiation, lowering temperatures by several degrees. They also release water vapor, which can help cool temperatures. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, trees sequester carbon from the atmosphere in their wood and roots, absorb gases and provide a place for harmful air particles to land.

At the same time, according to the U.S. Forest Service, trees provide mental health benefits such as stress reduction, improved mood and a sense of well-being due to increased exposure to nature.

Cities across the country and the world have documented the long-term effects of planting trees strategically in urban areas.

In Chicago, according to studies, neighborhoods with higher tree canopy cover have experienced temperature reductions of up to 4.6 F to 6.8 F compared to areas with little or no tree canopy.

Similarly, in Medellin, Colombia, temperatures fell by 3.6 F in the first three years of their program installing green corridors, and officials expect a further decrease of 7.2 F to 9 F over the next few decades, even taking into account climate change, the Secretary of Environment of Medellin reported.

Limitations

Trees are one solution that can help residents in South Dallas combat extreme heat, but Castro Mikoy said the initiative needs to be combined with solutions to the area’s other problems.

Displacement, making ends meet and food insecurity are some issues facing South Dallas residents that make heat waves even more damaging for them.

Silvia Herrera, 48, a Jubilee resident, avoids turning on lights and household appliances during the day in the summer to keep her home cooler and reduce her electricity bills. She said her bill is around $500 in the peak summer months.

“You have to make decisions such as when you turn on the A/C and what things to avoid to spend less energy so the bill [electricity] is not too high because then I can’t pay for it,” Herrera said.

Planting trees and having the ecosystem to purchase, transport and maintain them can also be expensive. The South Dallas Greening Initiative was able to come to life because of the grant Texas Trees secured. Not all cities or organizations can afford this type of solution, which is a limitation to replicating this program everywhere.

Community First

Through the five-year plan, Brittani Hite, strategic director of Ethos Equity Consulting, which is working with Texas Trees on the initiative, said there should be no surprises for the residents.

The project is for the community and by the community, said Hite.

“We understand that the solutions are already within the community,” Hite said. “South Dallas residents know what they want. They know what they need, but because of environmental and ultimately systemic racism, unfortunately, we lack green spaces, trees and other basic necessities in our city’s Black and brown neighborhoods.”

From Hite’s perspective, the conversations among the Jubilee moms after Zumba classes to Stephen’s dream of having community gardens that work with the wants and needs of the South Dallas community, will have an impact on finding the right solution.


María Ramos Pacheco wrote this article for The Dallas Morning News.


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