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Heroes

These photos of North Carolina's '100-year flood' will stop you in your tracks.

Parts of North Carolina are underwater, thanks to Hurricane Matthew.

Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

Over the weekend, Hurricane Matthew passed the coast of North Carolina. The storm has killed at least 1,000 people in Haiti and 22 in the United States. While hurricanes can be extremely damaging to the communities they hit, even farther away their effects are felt.

In North Carolina, Hurricane Matthew dumped as much as 18 inches of rain into rivers and streams already waterlogged from heavy September rainfall. The storm has since dissipated, but communities will be dealing with its effects for a long time.

Getty Images photographer Sean Rayford visited one community that was affected by the storm, and this is what he saw:

The town is Lumberton, North Carolina.

Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

Lumberton is a small city of about 22,000 people in southern North Carolina. It's about 80 miles from the ocean.

The rivers in Lumberton are overflowing their banks.

Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

Some of North Carolina's rivers are expected to reach record levels. The local Lumber River reached four feet above its previous record, and it's not expected to go down soon.

Water has flooded roads, homes, and parks.

Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

A lot of people have lost their properties altogether.

Those are cars. Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

Many major roads have been closed off as well.

Interstate 95. Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

Even the Interstate was closed down. Obama declared a state of emergency for the affected areas.

Meanwhile, residents have had to make do, like these folks boating over a front yard.

Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

Lumberton has also lost power and running water.

Residents ride an ATV past emergency workers. Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

Lumberton isn't alone. The Guardian reported that nearly 1 million people were without power in North and South Carolina.

Boats and helicopters have been able to save a lot of people.

Rescue workers outside a house in Lumberton. Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

Rescue workers saved about 1,500 people throughout North Carolina by early Monday.

These rescue workers, for instance, helped get a resident and his pet to dry land.

Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

Some people have compared it to Hurricane Floyd, which hit in 1999 and resulted in a "100-year flood."

Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

The Guardian quoted Blake Griswold, who was watching a creek spill over its banks, as saying: "That was a 100-year flood. It's been 16 years, and we have another one."

This is important. 100-year storms might become more common in the future.

This flooded bridge has restricted traffic. Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

Climate change may cause storms like Matthew to become stronger and more frequent, and to come with riskier storm surges. Instead of seeing a flood or storm like this once every hundred years, we might start seeing them every 15 to 20 years instead.

This flood begs a bigger question: Are we ready for more storms like this?

North Carolina's record flooding suggests we aren't.

We've all heard about climate change by now, so it's not like we don't know about it. But people often don't take action because we don't see how it'll benefit us; or we think that one person can't do very much; or we don't want to give up our lifestyles.

But honestly, there are a few super-easy things we can do. Most important, we can remember North Carolina this November and vote for congressional and presidential candidates who support carbon control or who will invest in infrastructure like dams and levees.

And the benefits? Well, for one, maybe we can push 100-year storms back closer to what they used to be.

Our weather may be getting stronger, but that doesn't mean we're getting weaker.

Over the weekend, Maryland was hit by a historically epic flood. Ellicott City saw over six inches of rain in under two hours.

The flash floods tore into buildings and turned the city's streets into rivers, putting anyone stuck in a car in a dire situation.

Jamie Knight was one such driver, who was pulled from her car by a few brave locals acting quickly to form a human chain.

Jason Barnes, a local toy store owner, had just lost all his merchandise in the flood when he decided to risk his own life for a complete stranger. Barnes' stepfather, Chris Penning, told WBAL-TV that owning a toy store had been his stepson's dream 10 years in the making, second only to writing comics about superheroes.

In the face of all his efforts being washed away, however, Barnes became a real-life superhero. He didn't think twice as he plunged into the raging flood waters to save Knight, who had gotten locked in her car as it was being carried away.

Barnes heading out into the flood waters. GIFs via Ark News/YouTube.

The whole ordeal was caught on camera, and the resulting video is pretty incredible. At one point during the rescue, Barnes lost his footing and almost got swept away in the raging floodwaters.

Thanks to teamwork and gumption, the two other men anchoring him to the building got him back on his feet and the trio managed to get Knight out through her car window and onto slightly dryer land.

It's inspiring to see people banding together to save a life, especially in the face of a natural disaster so extreme it only happens once in 1,000 years.

There really are heroes everywhere. And while this incredible rescue is worth celebrating, it's important to remember these dangerous weather situations are happening more and more often as a result of our changing climate.

Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images.

As such, it's time we use this heroic nature so many of us possess, pool our collective efforts, and pull our planet back from the proverbial precipice.

If these three men were strong enough to save one life from flood-force currents, then surely the rest of us banding together have enough power to turn things around on a global scale too.

Watch the entire awesome rescue below:

These 14 mesmerizing photos show Earth's many forces juxtaposed against each other.

We all contain contradictions. It's part of what makes us human.

Walt Whitman wrote, in "Song of Myself":

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"

And it's true. You can be conservative but want to stop climate change. You can be liberal but support rights for gun owners. And though at first glance this juxtaposition, these side-by-side comparisons, might seem fraught, these combinations can also be beautiful.

In fact, the entirety of planet Earth has always been made up of a harmony of forces: fire and ice, wind and water.

These 14 images show that these contradictions and juxtapositions aren't just OK — they're a natural part of the world we live in.

1. Check out the soothing balance between lights deep in Antarctica. One above. One below. Both beautiful.

Image from NOAA Photo Library/Flickr.

2. Meanwhile, in Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, fire and ice – ancient mythical enemies – create an amazing vista together.

Image from iStock.

3. And yeah, lava can be destructive, like this fiery eruption winding its way through a vibrantly green forest.

Lava from the 2007 eruption of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano on the island of Réunion. Image from Richard Bouhet/AFP/Getty Images.

4. But though fire is powerful, forests are nothing if not resilient. Like this new tree growing after a fire wiped out a forest in Australia.

Photo by Lucas Dawson/Getty Images.

5. In fact, fires open up the forest canopy, giving many plants a chance to grow, like these beautiful wildflowers. Some plants, like lodgepole pines, actually require fires to spread their seeds.

Image from iStock.

In many places it's the juxtaposition between these two forces — plant life and fire — that create truly beautiful forests.

6. Sometimes places on Earth seem to defy the laws of physics, like these incredible, balancing mountains in China where green trees thrive against the pale, steep, rock face.

Zhangjiajie National Park, China. Image from iStock.

7. Our weather is a balancing act too.

A storm approaches Sydney, Australia. Image from Cameron Spencer/Getty Images.

8. A balance that can be both beautiful and tremendous.

Image from iStock.

9. Sometimes it's a balance of what's inside versus outside. This infrared scan of a hurricane highlights the incredible juxtaposition between the howling winds and peaceful eye of the storm.

Image from NOAA Picture Library/Flickr.

10. Sometimes it's the opposite. Things are peaceful outside and roiling inside.

Image from iStock.

11. The ocean is also great at showing this juxtaposition. The Earth is really two worlds, after all — one above the waves and one below.

Image from iStock.

12. Not to mention the way the human world bumps up against the wild one just beyond our carefully constructed borders.

Image from Ryan Pierse/Getty Images.

13. In the grand scheme of things, humankind is just another part of the balance. Balanced both with ourselves...

A single shot shows both the new and the old in Rio de Janeiro. Image from iStock.

14. ...and with nature. Nairobi is one of Africa's fastest growing cities, but just outside its borders is the wilderness of the savanna.

Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images.

It's sometimes easy to see the divisions in everyday life and wish we could all be the same. It's tempting to say that we don't need labels or boxes because they divide us, but when you step back and look at Earth from a distance, you can see that it's the balance of multiple different forces that brings it — that brings us — together to make it beautiful.

Heroes

This unusual river of ice in the desert looks like fun. But the reason it's there isn't so funny.

What the 'hail' is going on in the desert?

True

What the heck is going on here?

The video appears to have first hit YouTube in early November and has been making its rounds on social media. There have been a lot of guesses as to what it is, ranging from a flowing sand dune to a river of quicksand.

The answer? Hail.

When you get enough of it, it can flow like a river, picking up loose dirt or sand along the way. It happened in Colorado a few years ago and in the Texas Panhandle in 2012.

The one slushy you don't want to drink. GIF from ABC 7 Amarillo/YouTube.

What the "hail" is going on in the desert?

Heavy winter weather has been happening to the entire region for the past few weeks. Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia — pretty much everyone's been hit. And these storms have been packing an unusually strong wallop.

For instance, in late October, Baghdad was deluged with a whole month's worth of rain in a single day, according to an Al-Jazeera report.

And that much rain means flooding. Even the driest ground can only absorb so much water at a time, making creek beds, lakes, and low-lying areas swell with excess water. And if the rain happens fast enough, it can even turn into a flash flood.

“Flash floods are the most dangerous kind of floods, because they combine the destructive power of a flood with incredible speed and unpredictability," says the National Severe Storms Laboratory. “They can happen with little or no warning."

If you're thinking you can just power through it, think again. NOAA's flood safety site reminds people that it only takes a few inches of moving water to knock someone down and only a foot to start washing away cars!

All across the Middle East, dry river beds have become torrents, streets have become rivers, and refugee camps have been turned into swamps.

A lot of people have been hurt — some have died. 12 Saudi Arabians have been killed in the last few days alone.

Scientists predict these types of storms might become the new order of things.

Climate change is expected to knock extreme weather up a notch — droughts will become droughtier, floods will become floodier, and storms will become stormier.

A 2012 study from MIT, for instance, predicted that because of climate change, what we call a "storm of the century" hurricane could start happening every three to 20 years. That could mean a Hurricane Sandy or Typhoon Haiyan once a decade instead of once a lifetime. Other studies have found the same pattern in droughts, heat waves, and winter storms as well.

This is the kind of evidence people need to see.

There's still a lot we can do right now to help limit and prepare for these kinds of changes, but it starts with people understanding that this isn't just about the thermometer. It's about people's lives too.

This petition from the NRDC urges our world leaders to take action at the upcoming Paris Climate Talks — check it out to demand action!