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How can oyster shells be used to fight climate change?

You could really see how the reef is slowing down the water.

Like there's waves on one side, but the water between the oyster reef and the mound was almost completely still. It's Tuesday, November 26th,

and you're listening to Science Friday. I'm SciFRI producer Dee Petersmith. Later in the

episode, we're going to find out why a coastal tribe near New Orleans is building oyster reefs to lessen the effects of rising sea levels in their community. But first, we're going to find out why a coastal tribe near New Orleans is building oyster reefs

to lessen the effects of rising sea levels in their community. But first, we're going to check in

on Asheville, North Carolina, which was only able to restore clean drinking water 53 days after

Hurricane Helene. Why did it take so long? And what can other cities do to protect their drinking

water supply after a massive storm?

Here's Sifright guest host Kathleen Davis.

When Hurricane Helene barreled through the Southeast U.S. in September, it dumped an estimated

40 trillion gallons of water onto the region. That resulted in immense flooding, which

destroyed roads, buildings, power lines,

and other infrastructure. And it also impacted the region's potable water supply. For weeks,

residents in Asheville didn't have access to drinking water, which comes from a local reservoir.

And we actually heard from two listeners based in Asheville who had some

questions about why this purification process can take so long. Hi, Science Friday. This is Sarah and

Allison from Asheville, North Carolina. Unfortunately, the storm destroyed all of the main

distribution lines coming from our reservoir, leaving the entire city without

running water for weeks. But now that those lines are mainly functional, the reservoir turbidity

levels are so high that they cannot run the sediment-filled water through our treatment plant.

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