A new pop-up exhibit on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall is highlighting the stories of people affected by climate change-driven severe weather and natural disasters, including in North Carolina.

The exhibit, called the Museum of Unnatural Disasters, is a project of Climate Action Campaign in partnership with Extreme Weather Survivors, Climate Power and the Center for American Progress.

Open through Sunday, the exhibit takes visitors through the lives of people affected by natural disasters across the country, from extreme heat in the Southwest to the Los Angeles wildfires in 2025.

Those stories include people such as Rosanne Kiely, a grocery store owner from Asheville who lived through Hurricane Helene. Kiely described the challenges of trying to operate a business after Helene, as critical infrastructure failed.

“There was a lot of loss of product, some loss of sales, and then so many other businesses had it a lot worse,” Kiely said. “Restaurants couldn’t operate. They lost all of the goods they had in their coolers and freezers, and they couldn’t cook.”

Kiely said her store gave Sharpie markers to customers so they could mark products with prices on shelves, and used old-school adding machines to keep track of sales.

Along with property damage, Hurricane Helene displaced thousands in North Carolina and killed more than 200 people across the Southeast. Kiely said the loss of basic necessities made it difficult for employees to stay and work, and many never came back to their jobs.

“Immediately, tourist dollars stopped,” Kiely said. “We’re still recovering. Many places couldn’t come back. All the food businesses operate on a slight margin, and then there are all the implications of something like that where you lose your staff, when you don’t have water for that long.”

The exhibit is at Constitution Avenue and 17th Street Northwest at the Constitution Gardens East End Plaza.

Source: Public News Service