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While people can get out of danger, their structures stay behind to face a storm like Florence.
In the Carolinas, this means not only homes, schools and cities, but also coal ash ponds, Superfund sites, chemical plants and thousands of industrial pork farms with lagoons filled with pork waste .
Here is where the danger is and why:
Pig farms
Will Hendrick, a lawyer for the nonprofit Waterkeeper Alliance, said the storm was heading for the North Carolina animal agriculture center.
On the way to Florence are the two counties, Duplin and Sampson, with the highest concentration of pork production in a state that produces a lot of pork. North Carolina has 9.7 million hogs, producing nearly 10 billion gallons of manure a year. Iowa is the only state with a larger pork industry.
"The waste generated by the entire population of Washington, DC, is 500 times more numerous," said Alexis Andiman, associate attorney at Earthjustice, a law firm specializing in environmental issues.
The material is collected in open pits called lagoons. The design of the system is based on storm surge data from the 1960s, before the effects of climate change are so well understood.
In 2016, Hurricane Matthew flooded 14 lagoons in the state. And in 1999, the liquid that escaped when Hurricane Floyd flooded dozens of lagoons ended up in streams where he killed fish and caused life-threatening algal blooms. aquatic.
Andy Curliss, Executive Director of the North Carolina Hog Council, said the industry has adapted over the years. "A lot of flooded farms in Floyd have been bought out and closed, and that's why you did not see the same impact in Matthew," he said.
Coal ash ponds
Coal ash is the dusty residue left after power plants have burned coal to produce electricity. It contains heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are linked to respiratory diseases and cancer.
Energy companies say that the way they store coal ash in earthen pits mixed with water is safe. However, it is feared that Hurricane Florence may move the ponds.
According to Avner Vengosh, professor of earth and ocean sciences at Duke University, there are two dangers. "One of them is the overflow of coal ash ponds causing contamination of water in lakes and rivers," he said. "The other potential risk is the escape of the ash itself."
This occurred in Kingston, Tennessee in 2008, when heavy rains caused the rupture of a pond, releasing 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash. This is the largest spill of this type ever recorded.
Duke Energy, North Carolina's largest utility, said its measures would keep coal ash in the ponds. On one site, a pond has been partially covered to prevent water from entering.
Anne McGovern, a spokeswoman for Duke Energy, said the company would also monitor the situation. "We do have drones at our disposal to help us do these inspections," she said.
Superfund Sites
The Carolinas are home to more than 70 high priority hazardous waste sites, including a former smelter in North Charleston near the coast contaminated with arsenic, antimony and other related substances. to health problems, including cancer.
The Environmental Protection Agency said it was monitoring at least 11 Superfund sites in both states. The agency was criticized last year after hurricanes Harvey and Maria flooded the Superfund sites in Houston and Puerto Rico.
"Industrial sites have always been close to water," said Thomas Burke, associate dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, who studied chemical exposure after the accident. Hurricane Katrina and other storms. "It makes them really vulnerable," he said. "In New Orleans, they caused a toxic gumbo."
Although cleanup is underway on Carolina sites and contaminants such as arsenic and lead are already capped to keep them in place, floods still pose a threat. "With extraordinary water flushes and flooding, you really have to worry about the integrity of these things," said Burke.
Chemical sites
According to a database maintained by the EPA, more than 1,000 sites of toxic chemicals are used or stored in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Paper mills in the region, for example, use various solvents to process wood. In the country, 2,500 chemical sites are in flood-prone areas, according to a New York Times analysis released this year.
"In case of flood, will there be any damage to the storage tanks? These are things we need to watch, "said Elena Craft, a health scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund. "We are talking about PCBs, dioxins, the worst of the worst," she said, referring to chemicals known to be harmful to human health.
Burke said flooding could turn neighborhood businesses, such as gas stations or dry-cleaning shops, into threats to public health. Sewage spills are another concern. "Even a regular warehouse that contains a huge inventory of pesticides – if it gets into the water, there is an exposure," he said.
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