News from rural America.

Hollywood's Twister sequel captures rural America without the stereotypes, a lack of healthcare access impacts many rural women, South Carolinians lack legal means to fight evictions, and prepping homes is important to keep out wildlife smoke.

TRANSCRIPT

[♪♪♪]

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, this is the news from rural America.

South Carolina has an eviction rate two and a half times the national average.

And Lance George with the Housing Assistance Council says rural residents often are the most vulnerable because they can't get legal help.

You know this new term you hear about, "food deserts," those are just legal deserts, massive legal deserts in rural areas.

The state Supreme Court set up a special housing docket designed to make sure folks risking eviction can mediate with landlords and lenders.

But George says while it's helping in the cities and suburbs, that hasn't reached the rural areas.

And being evicted is more than losing a place to live.

Macaulay Morrison with the Carolina Health Advocacy Medical-Legal Partnership says an eviction can follow someone just like a criminal record.

There are very few civil legal issues that you can have that will harm you the way that an eviction does.

Rural women are disproportionately hurt by a lack of health care access.

Alana Newman explains.

Ten states haven't expanded Medicaid, and with the end of pandemic coverage, millions of women are uninsured.

David Radley with the Commonwealth Fund says that means many skip doctor visits or other care they need.

He says research shows it's worse for rural women.

Access to health care, including mental health care, maternal health care, they're limited in states that have large rural populations.

Even before Roe was overturned, factors like Medicaid rollbacks were already closing rural maternity units.

Radley says it means an increasingly unhealthy picture.

The unwinding that's happened is, without a doubt, going to impact women's ability to access all kinds of health care, including maternity, but also primary care.

I'm Alana Newman.

Roughly 60,000 wildfires burn 8 million acres in the U.S. each year, harming people's health, even if they're hundreds of miles away.

Scott Leonard with Oregon's Energy Trust says keeping the smoke out by closing gaps around windows and doors is the first defense.

You can do things like add weather stripping to keep the smoke from drifting into your house, making sure just really that there's a seal on any kind of crack or gap in the shell of the home.

As summer thunderstorm season winds down, The Daily Yonder's Lane Wendell Fisher recommends giving the movie theater a whirl. - I saw my first real tornado on the Kansas prairie, an awe-inspiring and terrifying moment for a 10-year-old.

The memory resurfaced when I heard about "Twisters," a 2024 sequel to the '90s blockbuster "Twister."

"Twisters" captures rural America without the stereotypes.

Director Lee Isaac Chung's high-speed thriller respects its setting and characters while maintaining the whirlwind excitement.

"Twisters" might just be the rural blockbuster, but it's even the most critical moviegoers can get sucked into.

I'm Lane Wendell Fisher. - For The Daily Yonder and Public News Service, I'm Roz Brown.

For more rural stories, visit dailyyonder.com.