Print version by Adam Wagner
Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan
Reporting for The Raleigh News & Observer - North Carolina News Service collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

LUMBERTON, N.C. - When Charmain and Tony Hunt tried to turn on the air conditioning in their Lumberton mobile home in May, hot air came out.

A few weeks, two technicians and $375 later, the air conditioning was working again. But in the meantime, the Hunts experienced what it is like to go without air conditioning in rural North Carolina.

"When you walked in the door, you could feel the heat," Charmain Hunt said in an interview. "It was like you were literally walking into an outdoor experience on a hot summer day."

The temperature inside frequently reached 85 degrees Fahrenheit without the air on. After spending 15 or 20 minutes inside the warm house, Charmain would develop a light headache that would eventually turn into a dull throb.
"We started just leaving the house and riding around, even if it was just riding to Walmart, walking around Walmart, where I could stay cool," Charmain said.

While many people first associate heat illness with urban areas, state health officials believe high temperatures are also a major threat in rural parts of the state. The Sandhills region sees a higher rate of heat illness per capita than any other part of the state, even though the Piedmont and coastal regions have higher total numbers of heat illness cases.

When Lauren Thie, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services' heat prevention coordinator, was figuring out where to focus heat prevention efforts through a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she settled on counties in and adjacent to the Sandhills, specifically Bladen, Robeson, Sampson and Scotland.

Each county focuses its effort on a different group of people. In Bladen, outreach is geared toward farmworkers. In Robeson, it's people living in mobile homes. Sampson focuses on older adults living at or near the poverty line, and Scotland on kids playing youth sports.

"For the population in these counties, it's a really disproportionate number of people getting sick from heat," Thie said, though heat danger does still exist in urban areas.

In a 2018 paper, Thie specifically pointed to living in a mobile home, being a non-citizen or working in agriculture as risk factors for heat illness in rural parts of the state.

"We think there's some overlap between occupational exposure, and then, because people are earning low wages, that they don't have access to housing or income that will allow them to pay for adequate cooling in their homes," Thie said.
Global warming will likely require residents of North Carolina's Coastal Plain to purchase more energy to keep their homes cool. According to the N.C. Climate Science Report, the region's annual average temperature was above the long-term 61-degree Fahrenheit average in 16 of the first 18 years of the 21st century.

North Carolina climate scientists used two global greenhouse gas emissions scenarios to project forward. RCP 4.5 is forecasted to see global temperatures rise about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit by midcentury, while RCP 8.0 would see an increase of about 3.6 degrees.

Among the ways scientists measure the impact of these scenarios is a metric called cooling degree days, which tries to capture how much energy it will take to cool homes and buildings. Cooling degree days counts the number of degrees a day's average temperature is above 65 degrees Fahrenheit, so a day where the temperature averages 90 degrees Fahrenheit would count as 35.

According to the Climate Science Report, the number of annual cooling days statewide has steadily increased since 1970, with the 10-year moving average of annual "days" climbing from about 1,200 to nearly 1,600.

By the middle of this century, RCP 4.5 would mean at least 500 more "cooling days" each year for residents of Bladen, Robeson and part of Scotland counties, according to the N.C. Climate Science Report. RCP 8.0 would lead to an annual increase of 800 "cooling days."

Abbott Park, a mobile home park in Lumberton, N.C., pictured here on Friday, Oct. 16, 2020, is owned by Time Out Communities. According to an Associated Press report, the company bought almost all of the mobile home parks in Lumberton after Hurricane Florence. Researchers examining the health effects of rising temperatures in counties like Robeson, which is located in the Sandhills region of the state, are looking at how higher temperatures can impact residents of mobile home parks and exacerbate social vulnerabilities. Julia Wall jwall@newsobserver.com

Heat illness can happen to anyone

Kathie Cox remembers a hot day in the summer of 2018 when she went to an exercise class, walked her dog for a least two miles and then decided to mow her lawn. She thought it was alright because the temperatures were in the upper 80s with a breeze.

By 8 p.m., Cox wrote in a column later published in the Laurinburg Exchange, she was suffering tell-tale signs of heat exhaustion and needed her daughter to come help.

"I know all too well it can happen to even the most informed person," Cox said in an interview. She is a heat health educator and heat prevention specialist at the Scotland County Health Department. In that role, Cox is in charge of Scotland County's involvement in DHHS' Implementation and Monitoring Strategy for Heat-Related Illness program.
It was Cox, working with DHHS and other Sandhills-area health officials, who decided that the focus on heat health in Scotland County should be on kids playing sports and senior citizens in the county, two groups who are particularly vulnerable.

To help, Cox has provided high school and youth football coaches with information about heat illness and made sure that they know to keep players hydrated and get them shade if they're beginning to feel heat exhaustion.
"I want to make sure (coaches) are aware and just reminding them to be on the lookout for it and be aware," Cox said, "because a lot of times you can get sidetracked and kids don't want to tell you they're not feeling good in front of their peers."

Outreach efforts began in 2017, Cox said, and while they have stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic, a pamphlet about heat illness is slipped into a promotional bag that some people receive after being tested at the health department. In more normal times, the health department visits churches that have older congregations and gives out hand fans with heat health information printed across them.

Thie said that Manos Unidas, a farmworker health program, has taken the lead for heat health education among the seasonal farmworkers in Bladen County, while Sampson gave its nutritional support staff training on heat illness.
The DHHS heat health staff have developed a training program that has been used in all four counties, Thie said. The program emphasizes that people should drink more fluids when it's hot out, decrease activity in the afternoon, spend some time in a cool space and be aware of the impact medications could have on dehydration.

And while the program is focused on days when high temperatures reach 100 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit, Thie acknowledges that much of the state's heat illness happens at lower temperatures.

"When I'm outside on a 105-degree day, it feels extraordinarily hot," Thie said, "but we have a lot of days where the heat index is in the 90s and it can also be dangerous, especially if you're a farmworker and exerting yourself outside." The heat index measures the combined impact of temperature and humidity.

Charmain and Tony Hunt purchased a mobile home in Abbott Park in Lumberton, N.C., pictured here on Friday, Oct. 16, 2020, through Time Out Communities. They moved to the home in May of 2020 and discovered that the air conditioning unit blew out hot air. They each worked extra hours to pay for repairs by mid-summer, but in the meantime struggled with the impacts of increasing summer heat on their health. Julia Wall jwall@newsobserver.com

Climate change as threat multiplier

Maggie Sugg's 2015 doctoral dissertation focused on where and when North Carolina residents had to go to the emergency room because of heat illness.

The paper covers five full years of emergency room data, from January 2007 through December 2011. During that time, the 10 counties with the highest per capita rates of emergency department visits for heat-related illness were all rural, including Bladen and Robeson counties.

Each of the 10 counties had rates of at least 137 visits per 100,000 people over the five-year period.
"Heat-related illness is commonly found in rural areas," Sugg, an Appalachian State medical geographer, said in an interview with The News & Observer. "It's traditionally considered an urban problem due to the urban heat island effect, but due to underlying vulnerability and the makeup of the population, we're seeing greater heat illness in the rural areas."

Sugg also found that much of heat-related illness was happening around 95 degrees Fahrenheit, with fewer people getting sick when the thermometer reached 100.

"I think with those triple-digit numbers, people take that seriously and they stay indoors," Sugg said.
Outdoor workers on three university campuses restructured their work days if the National Weather Service issued a heat advisory, according to a follow-up study conducted by Sugg and Jennifer Runkle. The NWS issues heat advisories when the heat index is expected to reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

"The risk of excess heat strain was occurring during those warm but not too warm temperatures," Runkle, an environmental epidemiologist at the N.C. Institute for Climate Studies, said in an interview.

Both Runkle and Sugg said that climate amplifies existing vulnerabilities. For instance, in her dissertation, Sugg hypothesized that poorly insulated housing and mobile homes in rural areas could be contributing to increased heat-related illness in certain parts of the state.

Vulnerabilities that seem unrelated to climate change are, Runkle said, frequently heightened by the reality of living on a warming planet.

Calling climate change a "threat multiplier," Runkle said, "If you you live in an under-resourced housing development that doesn't have a lot of urban tree canopy and you don't have the resources to perhaps use your (air conditioning) for the duration of the day that you need it, these increasing temperatures are going to exacerbate that social vulnerability that already exists."

'It made me feel sickened'

The three-bedroom, two-bath doublewide is the first home Charmain and Tony Hunt have purchased together. They bought it from Time Out Communities, which owns many of the mobile home parks around Lumberton. Time Out purchased the parks after Hurricane Florence, the Associated Press reported, ultimately buying more than 1,200 of the roughly 1,400 mobile homes in Robeson County.

Each month, the Hunts pay a $465 rental fee for their Abbott Park lot and a $233 mortgage payment for the trailer itself.

Charmain said that a company representative told the Hunts they would inspect the trailer before the sale, but a spokeswoman for Time Out disputes that. When selling homes, Time Out does not conduct inspections of used homes it is selling, the spokeswoman wrote in an email, and buyers are allowed to hire their own inspector to check the systems on a home. The Hunts did not hire an inspector.

A Time Out technician did service the air conditioning unit on May 2, the company spokeswoman wrote, adding freon and running it. Typically, Time Out would charge $110 for the service, but performed it as a "courtesy." The company does not have any records indicating further contact about the air conditioning unit, the spokeswoman wrote.
But Charmain Hunt said that she called Time Out to ask about the faulty air conditioning unit in mid-May, hoping the company would waive the lot rental fee for a month to help offset the cost of repairs. She recalled a company representative saying Time Out could replace the unit, but the Hunts would have a third monthly bill until they paid off the cost of repairs.

"It made feel sickened," Charmain said. "OK, you're not getting headaches from being in a house that's heated. After I've worked all day, I have to come home and deal with heat."

If repairs need to be made within days of a buyer purchasing a used home from Time Out, the spokeswoman wrote, the company will "work with the owner to take care of it." But, she added, the buyer will be responsible for repairs if something fails within weeks or months of purchase.

Had the home been a rental, Charmain said, she could ask a landlord to make repairs and at least have the option to leave. But because the home was purchased, they had no choice but to make the repairs.

"We felt very restricted," Charmain said.

So Charmain, a medical technician who mostly works with patients with dementia, picked up some overtime. And Tony tacked some Saturday shifts onto his normal schedule on the deboning line at the nearby Sanderson Farms chicken plant.

While they built up the funds, the couple bought two tall oscillating fans, switching them on around bedtime and opening all of the windows in an effort to bring the temperature down at least a little bit. They also filled bags with ice and tried to use them to stay cool. They did not do any cooking, either eating takeout or making sandwiches at home.

"I did my best not to try to complain because I knew my husband and I were doing the best we could do," Charmain said.
The faulty unit is repaired now, and the Hunts plan on staying in the mobile home and making it theirs.
"We're just praying for no more little hiccups," Charmain said.

Time Out Communities, a housing development company based in Florida, has an office in Lumberton, N.C., pictured here on Friday, Oct. 16, 2020. The company owns multiple mobile home parks, which were reported to have been acquired after Hurricane Florence. Julia Wall jwall@newsobserver.com

This story is part of the Pulitzer Center's nationwide Connected Coastlines reporting initiative. For more information, go to pulitzercenter.org/connected-coastlines.

This reporting was also financially supported by Report for America/GroundTruth Project, The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund of the North Carolina Community Foundation, Dogwood Health Trust, Solutions Journalism Network and more than 700 individual contributions. The News & Observer maintains full editorial control of the work. To support the future of this reporting, subscribe or donate.

This story was produced with original reporting from Adam Wagner for the Raleigh News & Observer, with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

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The Pacific Northwest Water Year Impacts Assessment, an important resource for managing drought and other climate extremes, was published today. The assessment tracks impacts of weather conditions on different sectors across Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The 2024 water year, which starts and ends in the fall, was Washington's fourth warmest in more than 100 years. Higher temperatures and low snowpack contributed to drought in much of the state, according to the new data.

Karin Bumbaco, climatologist and lead author of the assessment, says the research is helpful to understand cumulative impacts of drought on the region.

"Even though our snowpack is doing better now compared with last year, that really has to be seen through the lens of deficits from the previous year and even before," she explained.

Bumbaco added that in the last decade, droughts have been more frequent than usual in Washington. The assessment focuses on impacts of either too much or too little water on seven sectors, including agriculture, drinking water, fisheries and forestry.

Bumbaco said the agricultural sector in Washington reported the highest number of impacts from dry conditions last year.

"That can range from limited water availability, reduced crop yields. There was also quite a few reports about negative consequences for livestock and grazing," she continued.

Bumbaco said heat, fire and smoke forced recreation areas to close, and the drought brought increased insect activity and tree mortality. This is the fifth Water Year Assessment, and Bumbaco added that along with the challenges she has noticed more people working to mitigate impacts of a changing climate.

"There seems to be more climate resilience being built across our region. And people are taking actions to kind of avoid the worst impacts from either really wet conditions or really dry conditions," she said.

For example, she said farmers are changing crops, as well as the timing of irrigation, and monitoring water use and availability more closely. While some areas of the state saw reduced stream flow, increasing salmon mortality, the assessment was not all bad news. Bumbaco said a well-timed August rain supported a record salmon run in North Central Washington.





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The feasibility of putting solar panels over the state's network of canals is the topic of a big new research project, co-led by the University of Southern California.

The California Solar Canal Initiative builds on a study from the University of California-Merced, which found solar arrays over the canals could generate clean energy, conserve water, reduce air pollution and save land.

Monica Dean, director of climate and sustainability practice at the University of Southern California-Dornsife, said the research will answer practical questions.

"How would we do it? Which canals make the most sense? How much energy could they actually produce? What would the economic implications of doing this be?" Dean outlined. "We're taking a hypothetical scenario and making it real."

The research phase will last about two years and is expected to provide a roadmap for policymakers, utilities and communities. The original Merced study estimated covering the Golden State's canals with solar panels could generate enough electricity to power about 2 million homes each year.

Covered canals also prevent evaporation and could save enough water to meet the residential needs of up to 2 million people per year and they could lower maintenance costs, since fewer weeds grow in shade.

Dean estimated the arrays could save about 50,000 acres of land.

"Rather than needing to put a solar panel on land that could be used for housing or farming or some other purpose, now you're just repurposing existing infrastructure and making it work a little bit harder," Dean emphasized.

The initiative is cosponsored by the independent advisory firm Solar AquaGrid. It will also include faculty from the University of California-Berkeley, the University of California-Irvine, the University of California-Merced and the University of California College of the Law-San Francisco, plus San Jose State University and the University of Kansas.

Insurance rates are rising quickly in California because of fires and floods linked to climate change and now, two new bills in Sacramento seek to make oil and gas companies pay.

The Affordable Insurance and Climate Recovery Act would create legal pathways for homeowners, insurance companies and the state insurance plan to sue and recover losses from oil and gas companies.

Melissa Romero, policy advocacy director for the nonprofit California Environmental Voters, said the companies misled lawmakers and the public.

"The one group that hasn't paid their fair share in all of this is oil and gas companies," Romero contended. "They knew since the '70s and the '80s that their products were creating runaway climate change. They hid the science, they did nothing about it, and they continued to push an agenda that stymied a lot of efforts to switch over to clean energy."

The Western States Petroleum Association called the bills a way for politicians to capitalize on tragedy. The California Independent Petroleum Association said the real culprits for the fires are arsonists, environmental lawsuits that prevent forest management, and cuts to firefighting budgets.

Romero also supports the Polluters Pay Superfund bill, which would charge fossil fuel companies according to their role in climate change and invest in climate-resilient communities.

"It requires the California Environmental Protection Agency to do a report about the actual costs, both looking backwards and forwards, that climate change has caused to California in terms of our infrastructure, disaster response and things like that," Romero outlined.

Proponents of the bills complained insurance ratepayers and taxpayers are hard hit by climate disasters. The state's FAIR Plan, the insurer of last resort, has assessed insurers and ratepayers $1 billion for Los Angeles wildfire claims so far. Meanwhile, State Farm is likely to get regulators' permission to raise homeowners' insurance rates by 22% after a hearing on April 8.