🏥 Progress on overdoses

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🌤️ Today's weather: Partly sunny with a high in the upper 70s.

🎂 Happy birthday to our Axios Raleigh members Mark Cox and Cynthia DeLapp!

Today's newsletter is 975 words — a 3.5-minute read.

The number of fatal overdoses has declined rapidly in North Carolina over the last year — far outpacing how fast they've fallen nationally.

Why it matters: Overdoses kill more than 100,000 people in the U.S. a year — but the number appears to be dropping quickly, Axios' Erica Pandey writes.

• The rate of deaths fell last year for the first time since before the pandemic.

By the numbers: In the 12 months ending in April, there was a 10% decline in fatal overdoses nationally from the same period a year before, according to preliminary CDC data.

• In North Carolina, that figure dropped 23%.

The big picture: In 2022, 75% of fatal overdoses nationwide involved opioids — especially fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

State of play: Greater investment into harm reduction and recovery has contributed to the decline in fatal overdoses in North Carolina, NCDHHS spokesperson Summer Tonizzo told Axios. Highlights include:

• The distribution of more than one million doses of naloxone (the generic name of Narcan, which reverses the effects of an overdose) statewide.
• Expanding syringe services programs across 66 counties and one federally recognized tribe.

Zoom out: North Carolina is part of a $26 billion opioid settlement with drugmakers over the companies' alleged involvement in stoking the nation's opioid crisis.

• North Carolina's share is about $1.4 billion. Counties, towns and cities are using the incoming cash to combat the crisis, putting it toward Narcan distribution and recovery services.

Go deeper

On the day that he got an aerial tour of the damage in Western North Carolina, President Biden approved the deployment of 1,000 active-duty soldiers to reinforce the North Carolina National Guard, the White House said in a memo.

Why it matters: These soldiers will speed up the delivery of emergency supplies like food, water and medicine to isolated communities throughout western North Carolina.

Zoom in: Already more than 700 National Guard members from North Carolina are in the mountains. The Department of Defense has also provided aircraft, vehicles and engineers to aid FEMA's response.

• FEMA itself also has 1,200 personnel members on the ground in North Carolina, according to the White House.

Still, though, water is scarce throughout the region, forcing residents to line up for hours for water, as repair work on water systems, like Asheville's, continues, The Washington Post reported.

• And search-and-rescue missions remain ongoing as officials hope to track down those still unaccounted for in the wake of Hurricane Helene — especially in the small towns throughout the mountain that have lost road access.

The death toll from the storm in Western North Carolina has risen to at least 69 people, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported on Wednesday.

• In total, at least 179 people have died because of the storm.

How to help: Support western N.C. communities devastated by Helene

📚 Wake County is asking voters to approve a $142 million bond to build new libraries in its fast-growing suburbs and renovate existing ones. (INDY Week)

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has criticized the state's response to Hurricane Helene, was the only Council of State member to not vote on Gov. Roy Cooper's request to declare a state of emergency, records show. (WRAL)

🎓 Larry Chavis, a former professor at UNC's business school, has sued the university after his classes were recorded by the university without him being notified. (News & Observer 🔒)

🌡️ Climate change is fueling extreme heat days and making it more dangerous for people working outside in North Carolina, with at least 15 workers dying from heat-related illness here since 2008. (WUNC)

🍔 The downtown Raleigh Char-Grill in Glenwood South is for sale after plans for a 20-story tower on its property fizzled out. (Triangle Business Journal 🔒)

🏀 Charlotte will host the first and second rounds of the men's NCAA March Madness tournament in 2027. Raleigh will host the East Regional round in the 2028 tournament. (NCAA)

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The National Weather Service released this view from space that illustrates the trail of darkness left by Helene. The photo above was taken from a NOAA satellite on Saturday, Sept. 28, more than a day after the storm's landfall in Florida.

By the numbers: As of Wednesday night, more than 1 million outages remain across the region. (View the latest here.)

• 395,916 in South Carolina
• 350,348 in North Carolina
• 288,996 in Georgia
• 25,420 in Florida

Keep reading

People who go birdwatching report lower psychological distress than those who do not, according to a study from researchers at N.C. State University.

Why it matters: The results, the authors note, are encouraging because birdwatching is considered an activity that many people can easily access — especially students who have reported an increase in mental health problems since the pandemic.

Context: 2023 was a particularly hard year for the N.C. State community, with 14 students dying during the school year from various causes, leading the university to rethink its approach to mental health on campus.

Zoom in: The study followed 112 N.C. State University students and staff members, splitting them into three groups: a control group, a group assigned to do nature walks and a group assigned to go birdwatching.

• Both the groups that did nature walks and birdwatching reported better scores for mental health than the control group — but birdwatching reported the highest scores.

What they're saying: "There has been a lot of research about well-being coming out through the pandemic that suggests adolescents and college-aged kids are struggling the most," Nils Peterson, an author of the study and a professor at N.C. State, said in a statement.

• "Bird watching is among the most ubiquitous ways that human beings interact with wildlife globally," he added, "and college campuses provide a pocket where there's access to that activity even in more urban settings."

Go deeper: Pulitzer-prize-winning writer Ed Yong on the benefits of birding

Homeowners at The North District in Clayton enjoy the best of both worlds.

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See homes starting in the mid $300s.

🐿️ Zachery is trying to ward off the squirrels from eating at the pumpkin on his porch. So far, the squirrels are winning.

Thanks to Katie Peralta Soloff for editing this newsletter.