How Ethan Clark Worked to Get Hurricane Helene on Everyone’s Radar

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Good morning, readers.

At age 12, Ethan Clark started a weather forecasting Facebook account that’s now called North Carolina’s Weather Authority. 

Since then, the 21-year-old meteorology student at NC State hasn’t missed a day of forecasting the weather to his now 591,000 followers. And when Hurricane Helene hit the state last month, Clarke made sure its arrival and impacts were on everyone’s radar. 

As the hurricane made its way inland, Clark started posting on the account about heavy rainfall and flash flooding on Tuesday, September 24. It was his job, Clark says, to explain what “14 to 20 inches of rain” looks like. 

On Wednesday evening, Clark says, he “sounded the alarm” on his page. On Thursday, he tracked Helene through the night as she touched down as a Category 4 storm, barreling up the Gulf Coast and knocking out roads and cell service. By Friday, Helene had made it to western North Carolina as a Category 2 storm with historic flooding, downed trees and power lines, and a destroyed water system. 

The death toll from Hurricane Helene stands at 98 according to North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services.

While Clark always tries to respond to messages and comments from his page’s followers, he says in recent weeks he’s been getting messages from people thanking him for saving their lives and those of their loved ones by sharing information about the storm. 

A month on from Helene, communities in western North Carolina are rebuilding, and Clark was honored with the North Carolina Dogwood Award for giving lifesaving updates when the storm hit.  

“I’ve worked hard because I want people to know how bad it was in western North Carolina,” Clark says.

Read Hannah Kaufman’s story about Ethan Clark here.

—Jane

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