From the catastrophic early-July floods in Texas to coastal flooding as Hurricane Erin stirred waters up along the Eastern seaboard, it was a flood-filled summer in the U.S. And the members of your Yale Climate Connections editorial team are no strangers to flooding.
We sat down to talk about our personal risk assessments and how we’re thinking about flood prep in an era of intense rain, strong storms, and reduced federal disaster support. This conversation took place in August 2025, as Hurricane Erin was causing storm surge along a vast stretch of the East Coast.
This discussion has been edited and condensed.
Editor-in-Chief Sara Peach: There was a really wild time back in early July: the remnants of Tropical Storm Chantal hit central North Carolina in a very narrow band that happened to include my community. Several people died in the floods. A bunch of artists in Hillsborough lost their artwork. A lot of people were displaced from their homes. And the weirdest thing that happened was that the town of Carrboro lost five of its seven garbage trucks and a bunch of police cars as well, which just goes to show how strong and intense floodwaters can be — they actually carried a bunch of the garbage trucks down a hill.
Director of Audience Experience Sam Harrington: Did you know when this rain was happening that flooding this bad was happening around you?
Sara: I had a sense that the flooding was really bad because my phone was going off all night with alerts from the National Weather Service and also from the county emergency services that were saying in the strongest terms I’ve ever seen, “Do not go out on the roads.” And you know, we’re pretty far from the coast here in central North Carolina, but this inland flooding from tropical systems has gotten pretty dangerous, most notably, as we saw with Hurricane Helene in Asheville last year.
Sam: I expect that we will continue to see that, because we know that warmer atmospheres hold more water and they’re dumping more rain from regular rainstorms but also tropical systems, too.
Read: Why is it raining so hard? Global warming is delivering heavier downpours
Sara: I think the three of us know that because we pay attention to climate change, but a lot of folks don’t realize how much has changed and how quickly. Floods are more likely, more extreme than they were even a few years ago.
Sam: Definitely, definitely. How has your community responded?
Sara: There’s been a lot of volunteer cleanup efforts. You know, neighbors helping each other, which is always reassuring to see that people do have this impulse to help each other. And my favorite thing is that Carrboro has said that they’re going to see what they can do to replace those public works vehicles with electric ones.
Sam: Pearl, I was curious what the conditions are like on the coast there, with Erin curving out to sea.
Features Editor Pearl Marvell: It’s been really rough the past couple of days. Big, big waves, probably around 15 feet in some instances. So the surfers are very happy, but there are also very dangerous conditions. And I know another community, another island next to the one I live on, they’ve had a lot of coastal flooding, and there were areas where it was impassable, and they were telling people to either stay home or stay away from the area. It’s been pretty intense.
Growing up in the Caribbean, we had flooding a lot, and it was primarily because we get these intense rainstorms as well as hurricanes and tropical storms. What happens is it rains so much more on top of the island where the volcano is, and then it starts to run down either through rivers and what we call ghauts. And it might not be raining that intensely where you are on the island, but when it rains intensely above you, it comes down, sometimes suddenly.
When I was in college, some students that I knew hiked up into the mountain in Puerto Rico. There was an intense rainstorm, and they got washed away, and they didn’t find their bodies for a long time. So I grew up with this very healthy fear of flooding.
Sam: As we have talked about, we’re seeing more intense rain. How are you both thinking about this new world of flooding and how to keep yourself and your community safe?
Sara: One thing that I’m working on right now is trying to get flood insurance at my home. One thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that even if you don’t live in an official flood zone, you can purchase flood insurance, and it’s usually pretty cheap if you’re not in a flood zone. I know that I will just feel a little less stressed when there’s a huge downpour, knowing that my home is protected.
And then another thing is if I’m out driving during a huge rainstorm, I know what areas of town typically flood, and I avoid those — because that’s a big way that people die.
Sam: Jeff Masters, a meteorologist that we work with, recently talked about a study that found that over 86% of flood deaths in the U.S. happen when people either walk or drive into flood waters.
Sara: I think a lot of people at this point have heard the message, “Turn Around, Don’t Drown,” to the point that maybe they’re tuning it out. But the reason that you’re hearing that message so often is because it’s true, and that is the No. 1 way that people get killed during these events.
Sam: You said that during the Chantal flooding, you were getting a lot of alerts on your phone. Were those things that you signed up for, or were they automatically sent to you?
Sara: Both. I received alerts that I had not signed up for, I think, just based on my location. And then I had also signed up for emergency alerts from my local government, so I was receiving those as well.
Pearl: I think another thing to think about is that flooding might not necessarily affect your home, but it can have a profound effect on all the infrastructure. When there are heavy rains in Puerto Rico, I know that the power is probably going to go out, and being as self-sufficient as you possibly can to prepare yourself is ideal.
We just bought this cute solar power station for not much over $100.
Sam: Weirdly, I’ve been in two major floods, and for neither I was at home. The most recent one, I was dog sitting, and the town that I was in in Wisconsin got 15 inches of rain in 24 hours. Similarly, the power went out, and I had this giant Newfoundland dog I was taking care of, and I couldn’t get in or out of town. The roads were washed out for a week. Luckily, we had a lot of backup water, and the power did come back.
After that flood, any time it would rain for a few years, I would get really anxious in my body, like, ‘It’s happening again.’ I’m always paying attention to the lake levels and the river level and the forecast, and I’m always like, if the numbers scare me enough, I’m gonna go spend the night at my parents in the suburbs, because increasingly, in all of these floods, you see people’s homes being washed away.
Pearl: I think that’s a good point, Sam, about community and making sure you know where your loved ones are, because this flooding oftentimes affects telecommunications, too.
Sara: Also, make sure you have extra dog food.
Sam: Definitely.
Pearl: I’m not too worried about Buoy [Pearl’s English labrador] because he manages to find food wherever he goes. Yesterday he ate half a pizza off the table, so I think he’ll be fine.
Sara: The scavenger genes are strong
Pearl: The other one, Squishy, she hunts skunks and all sorts of other animals. So she’ll bring us some good food.
Sam: Prepare for a flood: Get a dog that will bring you a skunk.
Pearl: That’s gonna be the very last resort. [Everyone laughs.]
Sam: Increasingly, I am thinking about evacuation plans. It feels normal when a hurricane is coming to your community, you’re thinking about, “Do I evacuate or not?” But I don’t think that people are having that conversation as much with something like a river flood. But maybe one of the lessons from the big flood in Texas is that maybe you should if you live in a flood zone like that.
Sara: Yeah, and I think what’s hard is that the floods can happen so quickly. With hurricanes, we oftentimes get a couple of days of warning. So you can be prepared to evacuate, but also just know that this can come up quickly.
Pearl: I think it’s also important to know the protocols and procedures of the local government. I just binge-watched the series on National Geographic about Katrina and what went wrong in New Orleans. Many things went wrong, but one of them was that a lot of people couldn’t afford to evacuate, and the government didn’t provide that assistance. So I think No. 1, like, what is your community and your local government’s plan? As well as joining forces with people within your community to create a plan if there isn’t one.
Sam: Yeah, and to your point, a lot of the most flood-prone areas in the U.S. are redlined neighborhoods where a lot of people who have been historically discriminated against live, or renters who can’t afford a better place live. Often, the most under-resourced communities are the ones that are flooding the most.
Sara: I was just gonna say, government assistance is getting more precarious now. And Sam, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what you’ve seen in your reporting about FEMA.
Sam: Starting out in the very beginning of the Trump administration, with tornadoes in Arkansas and Missouri, it was really hit and miss. I know that in Arkansas, where Sarah Huckabee Sanders is governor, she really had to fight to get some money for tornado victims from the Trump administration. She is ostensibly the in-crowd there.
Read: FEMA is unprepared for the next Hurricane Katrina, disaster experts warn
I did a lot of interviews with people in emergency management spaces, and people were comparing the current state of FEMA to what was happening at FEMA right before Katrina in 2005. In general, the assessment that I got from people was that it’s even worse now. There’s been a ton of staff leaving, and high-level staff with a lot of years of expertise and a lot of important connections leaving.
The administration seems to really be tightly controlling the purse strings of FEMA. After the Texas flood, every expense over a certain amount needed to be signed by Kristi Noem herself. And that meant that it took 72 hours before search and rescue teams contracted by the federal government were on the ground in the aftermath of the Texas flood, which is way too late to save people.
Read: What we’ve learned from FEMA’s response in the aftermath of Texas flooding
So I think in general, people can’t really count on federal assistance after a disaster, which means people are in much more vulnerable situations. I think it means we all have to be paying more attention to our neighbors and how we can help them. That kind of community response is really, really important, but also it is still important to fight for what you can get from FEMA, and to push back on cuts to it, because that kind of money isn’t something that community members can make up on their own.
Pearl: And to your point about not being reliant on the government and trying to find community leadership and assistance, I think there’s also the issue of people being very distrustful of the government right now, and especially people that might be undocumented or live within a family that has mixed immigration status. A lot of people are just not going to even dare talk to somebody that is part of the government right now. It’s definitely a time where it’s necessary now more than ever for community leadership and communities coming together and helping each other.
Sam: Yeah, and this has been true forever, but one way to prepare for disaster is to build relationships with your neighbors. Those are the people who are going to be the first responders. They’re the ones who are going to be in the floodwater next to you, and it’s important to have a good relationship with them, if possible.
Pearl: And also just to know the most vulnerable within your community, too, knowing that they’re going to need the most help when an emergency situation arises. People who need to have insulin, for example, they’re going to be in extreme danger should the power go out, should they not have access to that medication. So identifying the most vulnerable in your community is definitely a great thing that can be life-saving.
Sara: Yeah, and think about also people who might have mobility challenges, who don’t drive, which is a lot of people, or people who are on oxygen. And any kind of person, just probably at least a third of the public, who can’t evacuate easily, or maybe even get down the stairs of their apartment to evacuate very easily.
Sam: A lot of the research and literature shows that it’s people who are like most socially isolated, who are at the highest risk of death during disasters like floods or heat waves, or hurricanes. Trying to build strong connections and think about who’s most vulnerable is really important.
Sara: So take brownies to your neighbors.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
