Childcare Is Key to Disaster Resilience

The day before Hurricane Helene blew into Western North Carolina, Jeneal Hensley, a licensed family child care provider, was taking care of five children in her Swannanoa home. She'd been in business as The Little People's Place in her house by the river for more than a decade and had cared for dozens of the town's preschool-age children, along with some of her own grandchildren. Hensley loved her child care routine, but that ordinary Thursday would turn out to be the last normal day she remembers.

Before dawn the next morning, her daughter who lived nearby called to urgently insist: "leave now." The river was rising, and residents were evacuating...