October 3, 2024
5 min read
In Floods like Hurricane Helene’s, Toxic Chemicals Are a Silent and Growing Threat
People living near industrial facilities often have few details about the chemicals inside, which poses major risks when floods occur
Flooded storage tanks at Murphy Oil Corp.’s refinery in Meraux, Louisiana, are pictured on the banks of the Mississippi River, Tuesday, September 6, 2005.
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The following essay is reprinted with permission from 
The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.
Hundreds of industrial facilities with toxic pollutants were in Hurricane Helene’s path as the powerful storm flooded communities across the Southeast in late September 2024.
Near the coast and into Georgia, Helene swept over paper mills, fertilizer factories and oil and gas storage facilities. Paper mills are among the most polluting industries on the planet– some with thousands of pounds of lead on-site from prior production practices.
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Florida officials reported that a retired nuclear power plant just south of Cedar Key experienced a storm surge of as much as 12 feet that inundated buildings and an industrial wastewater pond. Spent nuclear fuel stored at the site, which also flooded during Hurricane Idalia in 2023, was believed to be secure, Bloomberg reported.
Further inland, the storm dumped more than a foot of rain on industrial sites in the Carolinas and Tennessee, some near waterways that quickly flooded with runoff from the mountains.
In disasters like these, the industrial damage can unfold over days, and residents may not hear about releases of toxic chemicals…
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