Watching as Hurricane Helene slammed into Tennessee, distant friends kept checking in on us here in Nashville, but we were fine. Better than fine, in truth: After weeks of drought, we were finally getting some desperately needed rain. Helene made landfall on the Big Bend coast of Florida on a Thursday night; by Saturday, Nashville had already gotten enough rain to erase the entire year’s rainfall deficitkkbet, and it was still coming down.

But it was impossible to rejoice in the rain when the same weather system that erased Middle Tennessee’s drought was wreaking havoc just east of us. In Appalachia, from East Tennessee all the way up to Virginia and West Virginia, furious rivers were taking out roads — even highways — and washing out bridge after bridge. Massive dams were on the cusp of failing. Mountainsides released their hold on rock, burying entire communities in mud. Whole swaths of forest were tumbling into homes and power lines and cellphone towers.

Western North Carolina seems to have taken the hardest hit, but the destruction was so widespread — covering more than 600 miles — as to be nearly beyond reckoning. Parts of Florida were reduced to rubble. Parts of Georgia and South Carolina were flooded and water treatment plants swamped. Downed trees turned neighborhoods into war zones.

As wrenching as photos of the destruction are, it’s the human losses that tear your heart to bits. The 7-year-old, washed away with his grandparents. The 75-year-old clinging for hours to a tree in a raging river, calling fruitlessly for help. The month-old twins killed with their mother by a falling tree, and the elderly couple who died the same way. There are dozens and dozens of these stories.

In the aftermath of Helene, more than 225 people are confirmed dead, with hundreds still unaccounted for. And new research suggests that the death toll will continue to rise for years, long after the immediate losses have been fully tallied.

Nevertheless, the usual chorus of blame erupted on social media even as the rain was still falling:

Why didn’t those people just leave? Why do they keep living in places where rivers repeatedly flood, or where forests routinely catch fire, or where hurricanes so often make landfall? Why don’t they just leave drought-prone areas where rivers don’t carry enough water for the people who already live there, let alone for those who continue to pour in?

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