The devastation from Hurricane Helene’s flooding in the North Carolina mountains is hard to fathom. The death toll is now over 175, with hundreds of people still unaccounted for. Damaged roads and bridges have left many towns and homes isolated without power, clean water or access to health care.

In those conditions, health risks multiply fast. A cut can get infected in contaminated water. The stress, exertion and extraordinary loss residents are facing can also exacerbate heart problems and take a toll on mental health. University of Delaware epidemiologist and North Carolina native Jennifer Horney explains the rising health risks that will continue through the long recovery.

Wind and flood damage to industrial sites can also generate health risks − ones that residents may never hear about. Hurricane Ida in 2021, for instance, triggered more than 2,000 reported chemical spills, as Rice University researchers James Elliott, Dominic Boyer and Phylicia Lee Brown explain. Their team mapped industries at risk of flooding nationwide.

The Carolinas have faced a growing number of 1,000-year storms − those with a 1-in-1,000 chance of happening in a given year. In another story today, the director of North Carolina’s State Climate Office, Kathie Dello, and Colorado State climatologist Russ Schumacher explain how climate change is loading the dice.

Also in this week’s science news:

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Stacy Morford

Environment + Climate Editor
Flooding across North Carolina’s mountains left many residents with muddy, debris-strewn yards and flooded homes. Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images

Health risks are rising in mountain areas flooded by Hurricane Helene and cut off from clean water, power and hospitals

Jennifer Horney, University of Delaware

Weather disasters, particularly floods, can create health threats that linger for months, from infected cuts to mold growth to mental stress.
A flooded Christmas tree farm in Boone, N.C., on Sept. 27, 2024. Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images

Why are so many historically rare storms hitting the Carolinas? Geography puts these states at risk, and climate change is loading the dice

Russ Schumacher, Colorado State University; Kathie Dello, North Carolina State University

If your area experiences a 1,000-year rainfall event, don’t assume that you’re off the hook for the next 999 years.
Microbes can influence the connection between the gut and the brain. JDawnInk/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images

Gut microbe imbalances could predict a child’s risk for autism, ADHD and speech disorders years before symptoms appear

Angelica P. Ahrens, University of Florida; Eric W. Triplett, University of Florida; Johnny Ludvigsson, Linköping University

Imbalances in different species of bacteria in a baby’s gut may provide insights into their neurodevelopment.

Bees have irrational biases when choosing which flowers to feed on − just like human shoppers do

Claire Therese Hemingway, University of Tennessee

Context, perceptions and expectations affect the choices both bees and people make.

Rising electricity demand could bring Three Mile Island and other prematurely shuttered nuclear plants back to life

Todd Allen, University of Michigan

Rising electricity demand, especially to power data centers, could make restoring some nuclear plants that closed early financially viable.

Toxic chemicals from Ohio train derailment lingered in buildings for months – here’s what our investigation found in East Palestine

Andrew J. Whelton, Purdue University

A lot went wrong in the scramble to respond after a train carrying highly volatile vinyl chloride and other chemicals derailed in 2023. The lessons can help ensure safer responses in the future.

Is it bad to listen to music all the time? Here’s how tunes can help or harm

Jillian Hubertz, Purdue University

Listening to music and doing homework can be in harmony − as long as you turn down the volume.

You can count female physics Nobel laureates on one hand – recent winners have wisdom for young women in the field

Filomena Nunes, Michigan State University

Only 5 women have ever won a Nobel Prize in physics. The field as a whole has issues with gender diversity, but as a woman physicist explains, success is possible for women in the field.

Airdropping vaccines to eliminate canine rabies in Texas – two scientists explain the decades of research behind its success

Rodney E. Rohde, Texas State University; Charles Rupprecht, Auburn University

Two rabies epidemics in animals spurred a state health emergency in Texas and a program that oversees annual mass wildlife vaccination. Millions of doses have been distributed since the ‘90s.