Climate Change Is Bankrupting America’s Small Towns

A long-abandoned town jail in Seven Springs, N.C., which has flooded badly during three separate hurricanes since 1999, shrinking the population each time, on June 17, 2021. Climate shocks have pushed already-struggling small rural communities like Seven Springs to the brink of insolvency. Rather than bouncing back, many are simply unraveling. (Mike Belleme/The New York Times)