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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Neither Harris nor Trump outline specific disaster-relief policies on their website.</li><li>Their records, however, offer clues into how they'd deal with natural disasters as president.</li></ul>As another <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-milton-evacuation-empty-gas-station-full-hotels-gridlock-traffic-2024-10">hurricane</a> threatens to devastate swaths of the Southeast, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are under new scrutiny about their disaster response strategies. And though neither have specifically addressed how they'd approach disaster relief on their campaign websites, their environmental records offer clues into how they might deal with similar crises in the future.When Hurricane Helene bore down on six states, and with particular force in North Carolina and Georgia, both Harris and Trump said that the focus should be on providing aid, not politics. But the storm, which has killed more than 230 people and destroyed entire towns, has already crept into the presidential race. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-helene-milton-tampa-florida-desantis-clean-disaster-dangerous-2024-10">Hurricane Milton is expected to hit Florida</a> on Wednesday night, only exacerbating the focus on environmental devastation."Disasters are always political," Thomas Birkland, a political scientist at North Carolina State University who studies the politics of national disasters, told Business Insider. He said that disaster relief is not, however, usually <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-milton-category-five-threatens-florida-fema-funding-2024-10">discussed during campaigns</a>.Timothy Kneeland, a professor at Nazareth University who studies politics and natural disasters, thinks that as hurricanes become more common, candidates should address them more explicitly."Having a short but clear statement on disasters should be part of any campaigner's policy," he wrote in a statement to BI.Both candidates have visited impacted areas, with Trump visiting Georgia on September 30 and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kamala-harris-donald-trump-crises-middle-east-strike-hurricane-election-2024-10">Harris on October 2</a>. Republicans criticized Harris for attending a fundraising event in California when Helene struck, while she maintained that politicians should stay out of the most devastated areas as first responders begin their early work.In the days since Hurricane Helene, Trump has spread misinformation about the storm and response efforts, prompting the Federal Emergency Management Agency to publish a fact-checking page. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-helene-relief-disinformation-misinformation-north-carolina-democrats-republicans-2024-10">Democrats and Republicans alike</a> say that the baseless claims are complicating <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-elon-musk-starlink-hurricane-helene-fema-2024-9">clean-up efforts</a>, and Harris has put out a digital ad slamming his former disaster relief. When he was president, Trump responded to several hurricanes. As with Hurricane Helene, he <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.vox.com/politics/376982/trump-hurricane-helene-fema-lies-debunked">publicized</a> misinformation. When Hurricane Dorian threatened Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, he incorrectly said that its path included Alabama as well. During a briefing in the Oval Office, he showed a map of the hurricane's path that included a Sharpie mark extending the storm's reach to Alabama. Trump also falsely claimed that the death toll from Hurricane Maria in 2017 was overblown, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/08/trump-hurricane-helene-natural-disasters/">Washington Post reported</a>.The former president occasionally threatened to hold back disaster funding over political spats. In 2020, for example, he floated withholding money from flood-ravaged Michigan because he was frustrated with absentee voting procedures in the state."A charitable interpretation would be mixed on crisis management," Birkland told BI about Trump's past responses to natural disasters. Kneeland said that storm victims and disaster experts largely criticized his handling of Hurricane Maria.During his time in office, Trump's administration rolled back more than 125 environmental rules, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html">Washington Post</a> found, with a big focus on deregulating the fossil fuel industry. Trump's campaign has, according to Birkland, "been pretty clear that it disdains alternative fuels."Harris doesn't have a presidential record to back up her approach to disaster relief, but Birkland anticipates she'd take a relatively similar approach to President Joe Biden.As attorney general, Harris prosecuted oil companies that broke environmental rules. During her tenure as vice president, she voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, which devoted $370 billion to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.But both Birkland and Kneeland told BI that Harris has become less aggressive about addressing climate change this election, likely in an attempt to court more moderate voters."Harris' position is a little murkier," Birkland said. "Harris has been clear that we should be doing things like alternative energy, but also supports, as of recent months, continued fossil fuel production. So it's kind of a both-and strategy."Presidents are somewhat limited in their disaster responses — both Kneeland and Birkland told BI that states and local governments lead disaster responses, with the federal government's assistance."Even when FEMA is on the ground they must work within the structure of existing state and local government," Kneeland said in his written statement. The responsibility is, he said, layered throughout the government.Regardless, all eyes are on how Harris and Trump respond to the twin storms — and the outcome of the election could theoretically hang in the balance. Kneeland said that disaster response can either greatly boost or doom an incumbent, pointing to instances as varied as Hurricane Betsey in 1965, Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.Though Birkland doesn't anticipate that the hurricanes will sway many voters, he said that even a small impact in swing states could matter."I think most people's minds are made up. I think that you're really dealing with the margins," he said. "On the other hand, this election is going to be won or lost on the margins, so that matters."

Hurricanes are taking the election by storm. Here's where Harris and Trump stand on natural disaster policies.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Owning a home in high-climate risk states like Florida is becoming tougher amid rising costs.</li><li>Still, owning may be preferable as renters have significantly less policy support than homeowners.</li></ul>In states at high risk of climate-related events, both homeowners and renters face difficulties in the wake of natural disasters, but there are important things to consider in each case.On the one hand, buyers are facing rising costs as insurance premiums skyrocket. Renters could bear some of that burden, too, as rental properties face rising property insurance costs that could drive up rents in the future.But when a natural disaster hits, like this week's Hurricane Milton, the stakes are different.Both renters and homebuyers face an immense loss of stability if their homes are damaged or destroyed, but homebuyers lose a huge investment.Here are key factors at play when deciding to rent or to own a home in a state where climate risks are rising and natural disasters are becoming more frequent and destructive.<h3 id="fb983509-a634-4c57-8ea5-a41d41e6da00">Both renters and buyers face rising costs</h3>The costs associated with owning a home are becoming more volatile as insurance costs rise due to climate risks."Those dynamics really play more of a role in why you're seeing weaker markets right now in places like Texas and Florida, which see more severe storms and generally different forms of climate risk, and where homeowners are seeing greater increases in insurance premiums, which doesn't affect renters as much," Redfin's head economist, Chen Zhao, told Business Insider.Average insurance premiums have increased sharply in the last few years, up 33% from 2020 to 2023, but that trend is uneven depending on a state's natural disaster risk, a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w32579/w32579.pdf">June study</a> found.Even in regions in different states with similar climate risks, those in states with overall higher risks often bear a higher cost burden as insurers pay to transfer more risk to reinsurance companies.Florida, which has a reinsurance exposure of almost 40% due to high hurricane risk across the state, saw annual insurance premiums increase by about $1,000 in zip codes close to its border with Georgia, even though areas on both sides of the border are similarly at risk.Georgia, on the other hand, has less than 10% exposure to reinsurers, and its zip codes close to the border saw increases of less than $500 in the last few years.Overall, rising disaster risk will raise annual premiums for climate-exposed households in the US by $700 by 2053, the study says."The cost of owning a home also has been more volatile over time because of the rising insurance costs and the climate change impact, and also because home prices are going up so fast," Jung Hyun Choi, a researcher at the Urban Institute's Housing Finance Policy Center, told Business Insider.Still, a big advantage to owning a home is the ability to lock in housing costs."Home ownership is still one of the most important ways of building wealth in this country," Choi said, adding that not only do homeowners build equity over time, but their costs are often fixed via the 30-year mortgage, which is the most popular home loan in the US.Renters, on the other hand, are subject to unpredictable price increases year-to-year. That's especially true after climate disasters, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/risa.14224">one study</a> that looked at rent prices following hurricanes in US coastal states.In extreme disasters, median rents rise due to reduced housing supply. In less severe scenarios, rents may rise because building owners are trying to offset losses from property damage, or possibly take advantage of higher demand from displaced homeowners.<h3 id="ccd2411a-bab0-4107-bf3e-4c9ccc85ffbc">Policy favors homeowners</h3>While it may be tough to know whether costs for renters or buyers are more directly impacted after climate disasters, public policy is clearly skewed in favor of buyers, Choi says. She pointed to forbearance and loss mitigation policies that are meant to help buyers keep their homes.After Hurricane Katrina, 29% of homes in Louisiana were damaged, compared with 35% of rental housing units — but 62% of damaged homes and only 18% of damaged rental units received disaster recovery assistance, according to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-10-17">federal study</a>.In places where federal funding was implemented for renters after Hurricane Katrina, though, rents appreciated at a much slower rate, one <a target="_blank" href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Disasters-and-the-Rental-Housing_final.pdf">study</a> found, pointing to the potential for future policy to address renters' vulnerability to climate events.Zhao points out, though, that renters generally have more flexibility to move and are less tied down when disasters strike."For renters, it's a different story. You don't own the financial risk of living in Florida if a hurricane comes through," Zhao said, adding, "I think that's the other thing that kind of drives a wedge between these regions and other places in the country, and also drives a wedge between homeowners and renters."Zhao acknowledges that renters still "certainly own the personal risk" of a hurricane. Renters lose their housing stability personal property the same as homeowners.Whether renting or buying is more advantageous amid climate change will be determined by policy solutions implemented in the next few years. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of clarity yet, Choi says.She adds there's a chance that renting has the upper hand in high climate-risk areas."If we kind of leave it like this, it could be actually better to just rent because you don't really have to worry about your properties being severely damaged and you're not getting any insurance coverage," Choi said.

Here's how natural disasters are shaping the buy-versus-rent decision in vulnerable states like Florida

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Jamaica can't tap into catastrophe-bond funds despite Hurricane Beryl's devastation.</li><li>That's because the air pressure level required for a payout wasn't exceeded. </li></ul>Although a category-five hurricane laid waste to Jamaica, the nation won't be able to access funds from a bond meant to cover natural disasters, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-05/catastrophe-bond-investors-dodge-losses-after-beryl-hits-jamaica">Bloomberg reported</a>.That's despite the fact that Jamaica was among the first to introduce so-called catastrophe bonds, or assets that offer traders an attractive yield for the risk of losing their money due to a natural disaster. With climate change on the rise, <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/bonds/hedge-fund-harvard-physics-catastrophe-bonds-extreme-weather-cimate-change-2024-3">cat bonds have grown into a hotter</a> investment.But in this case, investors in the country's $150 million asset won't have to pay a dime, the outlet said.Instead, bond holders were spared loss due to the specific terms of the investment vehicle.To pay, air pressure during the hurricane would need to have reached a defined minimum in any of the country's sub-areas, Bloomberg reported, citing an advisory sent to investors by Switzerland-based <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="media-ui-Link_link-tVkXhPLPofs-" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/4529593Z:SW">Plenum Investments</a>. Although a powerful storm, pressure did not meet that criteria.The structure of the cat bonds was such that they paid investors 7% above the US Treasury rate. According to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2024/04/25/world-bank-returns-to-the-cat-bond-market-providing-financial-protection-to-jamaica">World Bank</a>, the asset provides catastrophe insurance for four hurricane seasons and has brought in 15 global investors.While Jamaica has to turn inwards to cover damage costs, the country has $1.6 billion in a disaster safety net, Bloomberg said. Meanwhile, its sovereign bonds remain intact.Climate disasters are <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/bonds/catastrophe-bonds-climate-change-us-treasury-yields-disaster-insurance-costs-2023-10">not always strong enough</a> to trigger cat bond payouts, an expert told Business Insider in October.In fact, despite over 20 disasters hitting the US last year, the Swiss Re Global Cat Bond Total Return Index hit its highest one-year return since in two decades, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.swissre.com/dam/jcr:bb189e59-a15f-49df-a250-07b2c6b2d9bd/2024-02-sr-ILS-market-insights-feb-2024.pdf">reaching 19.69%</a>.

Why hurricane-stricken Jamaica can't tap into $150 million of natural-disaster insurance

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Spain's eastern province of Valencia was hit hard by intense flooding last week.</li><li>The government has pledged $11 billion to help it recover, but local authorities want $34 billion.</li></ul>Spain said it will give about $11 billion to help restore Valencia after flash floods hammered the province last week — but local authorities there want three times that amount.Historic, deadly flash floods — brought about by torrential rainfall — hit the area last week, killing at least 211, regional emergency services <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/GVA112/status/1853698255730942163">said</a> on Wednesday.Spain's State Meteorological <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spain-flooding-51-dead-in-valencia-region-economic-hub-2024-10">Agency</a> said last week that it was the province's most severe storm since 1987.During a press conference on Tuesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his government had <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/sanchezcastejon/status/1853796678265938374">approved</a> $11.55 billion in loans and grants to help storm and flood victims.However, a day earlier, the province's president, Carlos Mazón, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/carlos_mazon_/status/1853555363678728545">said</a> local authorities had asked for an initial package equivalent to about $34 billion."The measures will serve to rebuild, relaunch, and mitigate the effects" of the storm, Mazón told reporters.<div type="image" title="Satellite images of the Valencia province before and after flash floods on October 25, 2022 (left), and October 30, 2024 (right)." height="480" width="640" msid="114986283" hostid="261" sizebytes="62758"></div>On Saturday, Valencia's Chamber of Commerce <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.camaravalencia.com/noticias/informe-sobre-danos-provocados-por-la-dana-en-los-municipios-mas-afectados-y-consecuencias-sobre-la-actividad-economica/">estimated</a> that up to 4,500 businesses had suffered notable damage, with potentially 1,800 severely impacted.The floods affected many economic sectors, including agriculture, industry, and services, it said.Automaking remains Valencia's most <a target="_blank" href="https://www.investinspain.org/en/regions/comunidad-valenciana/industrias-destacadas?#nameRegion">important industry</a>.Cristina del Rey, the communications director for Ford Spain, told BI last week that her company's Valencia plant had not suffered direct damage from the floods but was shut on Wednesday and Thursday.According to a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://fundacionaon.es/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/BAROMETRO-DE-CATASTROFES-2021.pdf">report</a> from the Aon Spain Foundation, a private foundation that works to prevent and assist with natural disasters, the annual cost of natural disasters in Spain between 2016 and 2021, including floods, was between $940 million and $2.5 billion.Local authorities on Sunday <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/GVA112/status/1853692672327721128/photo/1">said</a> that the heavy rains — part of a phenomenon known as "cold drops" — had caused "unprecedented" damage to infrastructure and human life.The provisional death toll put it among the most serious natural disasters in Western Europe in recent years. Widespread flooding in July 2021 killed more than 200 people in Belgium, Germany, and surrounding countries.At a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1ynJODVpRdXxR">press conference</a> on Tuesday, Sánchez declared Valencia a disaster area, paving the way for extra funding for local authorities.He said about 15,000 soldiers and police officers had been dispatched to the province, as well as 287 forest brigaders, around a hundred customs officers, 44 forensic physicians, and 600 specialized vehicles for pumping, cleaning, and supplying the affected areas.Sánchez added that 98% of affected households now had power, and about 25 miles of roads and 46 miles of railway tracks had been repaired."We must continue working with more resources, more coordination, and greater effort until normality returns to all the municipalities and to all the homes affected by this tragedy," he said.

Counting the cost of Spain's hellish floods, the government pledged $11B, local officials want $34B

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Reinsurance costs, emergency backstops for insurance companies, have risen in some states by 40%. </li><li>Those costs are being passed on to homeowners in states like Florida and California.</li></ul>Earlier this year, Florida resident Danny Collins received a surprise in the mail: His monthly mortgage payment was going up $1,000.Collins' Hobe Sound home was re-zoned because of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/my-mortgage-in-florida-went-up-1000-because-of-potential-flooding-2023-7">increased risk of flooding in Florida</a> and the bank holding his mortgage purchased new insurance without notifying Collins. It was a shock, and though he was able to negotiate it down, it's still costing him an extra $8,000 this year. "It was really frustrating because it's not ever talked about. These are the issues that are plaguing Florida," Collins told Insider. "Florida will be underwater soon. That's just the reality." The climate crisis is impacting the cost of homeownership nationwide, as insurance companies adjust their models based on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/extreme-heat-flooding-wildfires-new-normal-abnormal-2023-7">shifting frequency and scale of natural disasters</a>. We want to hear from you: Have your homeownership costs gone up because of increasing insurance premiums due to more frequent disasters? Is your community concerned about the climate crisis' impact on affordability? Did higher insurance rates owing to past climate-related events play a role in your decision to move? Tell us how the climate crisis is affecting you and where you live. Email reporter Dan Latu at dlatu@insider.com. <h2>Homeowners left in a lurch</h2>In California, homeowner Nick told Insider that he couldn't find affordable insurance for his $100,000 cabin in the Klamath National Forest. The increasing risk of seasonal wildfires made many plans too expensive. So when the horrific McKinney fire tore through his community in 2022, Nick, who asked Insider to withhold his last name because of legal action related to the fire, wasn't prepared and lost his entire house. "We never thought the fires could be this frequent and this bad," he told Insider. Even reinsurance plans, which are essentially emergency insurance for insurance providers when disasters are too costly, have spiked 40% this year in some parts of the country, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/business/reinsurance-global-crises.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to the New York Times</a>.Insurers have pointed to these reinsurance jumps as being behind their own cost-cutting decisions. When <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/state-farm-cuts-new-home-insurance-california-citing-wildfire-risk-2023-5">State Farm announced a pullback</a> on some policies available in California, the insurance giant explained it was due in part to "a challenging reinsurance market."In Florida, Bob Stephens told Insider it feels like "living on the Titanic." Currently, the state-backed Citizens Insurance plan does not cover homes that would cost more than $1 million to rebuild, leaving Stephens' $3 million property in a lurch."You know you're going down. How are you going to stop it?" he said.

Natural disasters are making it harder for you to insure your home — and costing homeowners thousands

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A couple in North Carolina were caught in a landslide caused by heavy rain from Hurricane Helene.</li><li>Their house and livelihoods were destroyed, and Lindsay Thomas left unable to walk.</li></ul>On the morning of Friday, September 27, Andrew Marsh and Lindsay Thomas were at their home — one of a few lodges scattered along a winding mountain road in Marion, North Carolina — drinking coffee with two neighbors and waiting for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/before-after-satellite-photos-hurricane-helene-destruction-florida-2024-10">Hurricane Helene</a> to pass.They lived in the 500-mile stretch of the US that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-helene-hits-asheville-beer-microbreweries-north-carolina-floods-2024-9">Helene would roll through,</a> including parts of Florida, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee. But the couple weren't worried; they knew a storm was coming, but hadn't been told to evacuate because their home was on high ground in the Blue Ridge Mountains.Still, they had <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-helene-slams-florida-power-outages-flooding-2024-9">prepared for flooding</a> and had enough food, supplies, and a generator to survive for one or two weeks "if it got really bad," Marsh, a 34-year-old metalworker, told Business Insider.But they didn't know that several days of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/quartz-mine-computer-chips-hurricane-helene-spruce-pine-semiconductor-2024-9">heavy rain from Hurricane Helene</a> had weakened the soil on the mountain, triggering a landslide that was headed straight down toward their home.Marsh and Thomas were thrown down the mountain by a wave of sliding earth, rocks, and trees that onlookers estimated was 40 to 60 feet high, destroying their home and livelihoods in a matter of seconds.The debris crushed Thomas, dislocating her legs and leaving her unable to walk. Marsh had "at least 50" flesh wounds and couldn't use his right hand because it was sliced open down to the muscle, he said.<h2 id="9ce482e9-d9f9-495f-9341-3326f5a4784f">Helene is estimated to have caused up to $34 billion worth of damage</h2>Since Helene made landfall, at least 215 people have been confirmed dead, making it the second deadliest hurricane in the US in recent years, after Katrina in 2005.On Monday, Moodys estimated the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/analysts-estimate-up-to-34-billion-damage-from-hurricane-helene-2024-10">hurricane caused between $20 billion and $34 billion</a> worth of damage, with between $15 billion to $26 billion affecting properties alone.As the Federal Emergency Management Agency <a target="_blank" href="https://www.floodsmart.gov/get-flood-insurance">estimates</a> that only 4% of homeowners in the US have flood insurance, and those who do <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-helene-north-carolina-flood-insurance-2024-10">might not be covered</a> for flooding or landslides, this looks to be an expensive disaster for many.Marsh and Thomas, 40, a yoga teacher and masseuse, will be <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-flood-damage-rescue-helene-asheville-north-carolina-us-2024-10">dealing with the aftermath</a> long after Thomas is discharged from hospital. The couple told Business Insider they will have to rebuild their lives and careers from scratch, all while paying off medical bills, trying to claim home insurance, and dealing with the psychological fallout.<div type="image" title="The hands of Lindsay Thomas (top) and Andrew Marsh (bottom) holding hands with bandages and a cannula in." height="1188" width="1586" msid="113943321" hostid="261" sizebytes="97044"></div>Stories like Marsh and Thomas' are only going to become more common as the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/safe-places-for-climate-change-vermont-floods-2023-7">climate crisis brings more rain</a>, and with it landslides to vulnerable areas, researchers concluded in a 2016 paper published in Earth-Science Reviews.Natural disasters have already cost the US in a big way: between 1980 and 2021, the country spent $2 trillion on both immediate and longer-term restoration such as repairing infrastructure, a 2023 article published in The Journal of Climate Change and Health found.<h2 id="d4f10174-5a8d-4ae9-8084-14331ab8ba28">'Mud and water was being pressed into my nose, ears, and mouth'</h2>Just before 10 a.m., the couple heard a "deep rumbling" and "loud cracking thunder-like noises" a few hundred yards from their home, Thomas said, before the ground dropped out from beneath their feet."It happened so fast that there was no chance of reacting. The best way I've been able to describe it is as if somebody just threw the house into a blender and hit the puree button," Marsh said.Thomas added: "I just fell down and down. I remember my vision going from light to brown to black, and mud and water was being pressed into my nose, ears, and mouth."I remember a very specific moment where I kind of surrendered and recognized 'I am dying right now.' So I decided to just soften to the experience and moved into more of a place of acceptance and acknowledging all of my blessings."I let go of my phone, and it felt really good to let go of the struggle."It was then that she was "miraculously spit out" of the sliding earth and found herself about an eighth of a mile from where their home had been, straddling a tree trunk and covered head to toe in mud.<div type="image" title="A decimated bit of woodland in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene." height="878" width="1586" msid="113943323" hostid="261" sizebytes="198690"></div><h2 id="20463e93-243f-4cfd-abb9-92fb10f320c2">It took hours for rescue workers to find the couple</h2>Marsh managed to pull himself from the debris with some effort. He then helped Thomas, who had lost the use of her legs, down from the tree trunk, before digging their neighbor, John Norwood, out of neck-deep rubble. They didn't know where Norwood's fiancé, Julie le Roux, was, and he "wandered off" to try to find her, Marsh said. She was still missing as of October 3.Marsh found an empty Airbnb property about 250 yards away and helped Thomas limp into it. There, they were able to do some basic first aid about three hours after the landslide.Norwood showed up after two hours, "covered head to toe in wounds," he said.Then, at about 4 p.m., six hours after the landslide, they spotted a rescue worker across a 50-foot-wide flow of runoff. By midnight, the three were evacuated from the area by North Carolina State Fire Marshals and were treated for their injuries at nearby hospitals by what Thomas described as an "amazing" EMT care team.<h2 id="0bfde9e5-2693-4a75-ac8c-b13d7e8106c4">Covering medical costs 'somehow'</h2>"We're both still in a lot of pain. It's near constant, but there's definitely signs that we're making a recovery and that we are going to be OK," Marsh said.<div type="image" title="A selfie of Lindsay Thomas and Andrew Marsh, both in black." height="1284" width="1182" msid="113943326" hostid="261" sizebytes="39702"></div>As a veteran, Marsh has access to a medical benefits package, but Thomas is without active health insurance. They will have to cover her medical costs "somehow," Marsh said. But since he lost his workshop, van, and equipment in the disaster, and Thomas' job depends on the "strength and mobility" of her body, it's unclear how.The couple's insurer has refused to cover the loss of their home, but "even with the homeowners insurance policy, if it was to completely pay out, it wouldn't come close to being able to replace our lives," Marsh said.For now, Thomas is trying to remain in the present and not worry too much about the future, although it hasn't fully hit her that they "don't have a home to go back to," she said.Marsh's brother set up a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-andrew-and-lindsays-recovery-journey?qid=360add922ba022e599f5153952f0bebe">GoFundMe</a> for the couple, to cover their medical expenses, temporary housing, and living costs as they get situated. Marsh said that although he struggles with the idea of accepting help, he knows they need as much as they can get right now."When this whole situation has passed, I'm going to dedicate some part of my life to returning the favor to the world," he said.

A self-employed couple lost their home and livelihoods in Hurricane Helene. Their home insurance doesn't come close to enabling them to rebuild their lives.

You Searched For "natural disaster" and got 6 results

Hurricanes are taking the election by storm. Here's where Harris and Trump stand on natural disaster policies.

Alice Tecotzky

Here's how natural disasters are shaping the buy-versus-rent decision in vulnerable states like Florida

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Why hurricane-stricken Jamaica can't tap into $150 million of natural-disaster insurance

Filip De Mott

Counting the cost of Spain's hellish floods, the government pledged $11B, local officials want $34B

Thibault Spirlet

Natural disasters are making it harder for you to insure your home — and costing homeowners thousands

Dan Latu

A self-employed couple lost their home and livelihoods in Hurricane Helene. Their home insurance doesn't come close to enabling them to rebuild their lives.

Serafina Kenny

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