Rainstorms and Refugees: Climate Change-Related Flooding Outcomes for Vulnerable Communities of North Carolina.

When we acknowledge environmental and racial violence in history and understand howcommunities of racial minorities have been disadvantaged, and when we fully understand the threat of the catastrophic effects of climate change to be entangled with the fate of the vulnerable, our resources compel us, as a society and as scholars, to mitigate the profound suffering and potential displacement caused by fossil fuels. We explore the consensus among predictive regional climate models and interpret the ways in which flood-causing severe storms would change before the next century; past (1981-2021) observations from FEMA already show great increases in flooding disasters in some socially vulnerable counties of NC. We place these storms within the context of historical environmental injustices and show how increased flooding risk could exacerbate the vulnerability of NC communities. Specifically, we concentrate on 9 NC counties that meet the criteria for the CDC Social Vulnerability Index and their susceptibility to heightened flooding due to heavy rainstorms, aiming to inspire targeted actions and policies that prioritize and protect the well-being of these folks.