Over the past several weeks, Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused significant damage across the southeastern United States, impacting countless families and businesses. The storms’ effect on the region has been profound, underscoring the need for climate resilience in our communities. The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)—NOAA’s repository for climate records and data housed in the Veach-Baley Federal Building in Asheville, North Carolina—remains secure and is now operational, having experienced an unprecedented interruption in providing environmental information products and services to its constituents due to widespread infrastructure damage. The Industry Proving Grounds (IPG) and the entire NCEI team expresses gratitude for the community’s support, and reiterates its commitment to ongoing recovery efforts.
Hurricanes Helene and Milton’s impact underscored the necessity of IPG’s efforts to bolster NCEI’s data integrity and service reliability amid extreme weather events, and highlighted the need for enhanced resilience planning to safeguard NOAA’s vast environmental datasets. It also brought an urgent reminder of the need for key industries—retail, re/insurance, and architecture & engineering—to leverage NOAA’s climate data to prepare for future challenges. Through the IPG initiative, these critical sectors are improving access to NCEI’s climate information products and services, enabling them to adapt to mounting climate risks.
Supply Chain Strains on Retailers
In the storms’ wake, retailers faced supply delays and shortages offsite link due to disruptions in transportation routes, damaged infrastructure, and impacted personnel. Leading retailers, including many members of the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), worked with local and federal agencies to keep supply chains running and lines of communication open offsite link during the disaster relief efforts. Given their footprint and position in local communities, retailers are especially well-positioned to provide needed supplies as well as manpower to ensure that communities have what they need to begin recovery efforts. By redirecting supplies to affected areas, allocating funds to relief efforts, and aiding the rebuilding process, retailers underscored the importance of rapid response and their commitment to the community. In future disasters, IPG products can help the retail industry plan more effectively for storms such as Helene and Milton. RILA, a sector collaborator for the IPG, is helping to guide the development of NOAA products that analyze long- and short-term climate projections. The retail sector can use these products and services to better anticipate and respond to disruptions, safeguard supply chains, and provide critical support during disasters.
Financial Risks for Insurers
Helene and Milton also demonstrated the financial risks of extreme events for the re/insurance industry. Current estimates place insured losses as high as $47.5 billion offsite link throughout the Southeast. Before Helene made landfall, the Reinsurance Association of America issued hurricane preparedness guidance offsite link based on NCEI data, highlighting the importance of having up-to-date, tailored climate data for risk assessment. Forthcoming IPG services such as the enhanced Billion Dollar Disasters product will be essential in helping reinsurance and insurance companies manage exposure, adjust policies, and prepare for future trends and extreme events. The Billion Dollar Disasters product shows the impact of extreme weather and climate events on the economy in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Rebuilding Resilient Infrastructure
With widespread destruction to roads, bridges, electrical grids, water systems, buildings, and homes caused by the hurricanes, communities across the Southeast are focused on rebuilding. “Civil engineers are dedicated to protecting the public with projects that can lessen the impacts of these storms, and we are eager to help communities rebuild as quickly as possible following events like Milton and Helene,” said American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) President Feniosky Peña-Mora in a press statement offsite link. NOAA and ASCE offsite link have a long-standing partnership; access to NCEI climate data is vital to developing building design standards and codes for more resilient, disaster-ready designs. Currently, the IPG is creating a product based on feedback from industry leaders called Typical Meteorological Year, which is a point-and-click map and dataset demonstrating current and future climate scenarios. NCEI Products are being designed to look at annual variability, supply better information into building energy simulations, and evaluate the impact that future climate scenarios will have on design.
NCEI’s Industry Proving Grounds: A Foundation for a Climate-Ready Future
The 2024 hurricane season underscored the critical role of NCEI climate data in driving strategic decision-making and investing for a climate-resilient future in U.S. industries. The hurricane season also highlighted the need to continuously improve the data, products, and services available to the public. The IPG is at the forefront of improving the delivery and use of NOAA’s climate data, thereby empowering decision-makers in the architecture and engineering, re/insurance, and retail sectors to make informed investments for a climate-ready future. Working together, we can better safeguard our homes, families, and communities.