After a disaster, communities can be at risk for toxic exposures. Do residents know that?

Heavy rains accompanying Hurricane Helene in September caused flooding that reached heights in Asheville, North Carolina that prior flooding hadn’t reached since 1902. We need your help to stay independent Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism The EPA’s Risk Management Program under the Clean Air Act also requires facilities that use extremely hazardous substances to develop a plan should they be exposed to something like a natural disaster. Moreover, citizens who do decide to file the public records requests necessary to access some of the information about any potential toxic exposures might have that information withheld if an investigation is ongoing or the materials in the manufacturing facility are deemed to be a national security risk, Gartner said. “What we end up with is basically a lot of gray area and question marks that are left to the public to try to figure out themselves.” Elliott has tried to access information about exposures after the hurricanes in the Northeast this fall and has also tried to access information about the risks in Houston, Texas to support protective planning efforts should a major storm hit the metropolitan area — which is one of the largest petrochemical complexes in the world and has a high risk of flooding. “We came away with only being able to access things through a very restricted request or petition through a federal office in D.C., waiting for clearance, getting clearance, and then being approved to only view 10 of these documents at a time in a secure, federally monitored facility in town.” Once the records were obtained, Elliott said, they were "heavily redacted in terms of what's actually provided as a public citizen to be able to access."