North Carolina-based NOAA center remains hobbled by Helene

By Daniel Cusick | 10/04/2024 04:12 PM EDT

The National Centers for Environmental Information said all of its employees are accounted for and data and paper holdings are safe.

Marine One, with President Joe Biden on board, flies around areas impacted by Hurricane Helene over Asheville, N.C., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Marine One, with President Joe Biden on board, flies around areas impacted by Hurricane Helene over Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday. Susan Walsh/AP

NOAA’s climate and weather information center located in Asheville, North Carolina, remains down after flooding from Hurricane Helene, the agency said Friday in a news release.

The National Centers for Environmental Information “has confirmed that all of its employees and staff have been accounted for, and its data holdings — including its paper and film records — are safe,” the agency said, while noting that the center’s broadband internet has limited functionality.

There is currently no timeline for when the center will be “fully operational,” the release said. Power and communications services to the Asheville area have been severely affected by Helene, while floods also damaged and cut off the roads in the region.

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The headquarters facility, located in the Veach-Bailey Federal Complex in downtown Asheville, is a massive repository for information about past climate and weather events that inform some of the nation’s key scientific reports on the impacts and costs of climate change, including the widely cited annual billion-dollar disaster reports.

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