"Appalachia's Katrina": Characterizing the traumatic impact of Hurricane Helene

Hurricane Helene made landfall in the United States as a Category 4 hurricane on September 26, 2024. Its impacts spanned nearly 500 miles and six states; most notably, it devastated economically disadvantaged Appalachian communities hundreds of miles inland who were unprepared to deal with the storm. Previous research provides some insights into contextual and individual risk factors commonly associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and disorder (PTSD) following disasters, however each disaster is unique and so are its impacts.

Accordingly, the present study sought to characterize the traumatic impact of Hurricane Helene, including associations with PTSS/PTSD, in a sample of 544 individuals exposed to Hurricane Helene (M_age = 46.1, 85.9% White). Participants completed self-report surveys of hurricane exposure, PTSS, lifetime trauma exposure, and peritraumatic and posttraumatic PTSD risk factors between 4-8 weeks poststorm and a series of linear and logistic regressions were computed.

Consistent with local reporting, Appalachian participants in our sample endured more severe traumatic impacts of the storm compared to those in non-Appalachian communities. Approximately 26% of the full sample screened positive for probable PTSD, including 38.3% of directly impacted Appalachian participants. Consistently across the full sample and among directly impacted Appalachian participants, economic factors, having one's home damaged or destroyed, and loss of access to safe water were associated with PTSS and/or PTSD. Peritraumatic fear was particularly salient for directly impacted Appalachian participants.

Findings offer insight into the survivors of Hurricane Helene most impacted by the storm, informing mental health intervention efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).