When Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina, bringing torrential rain and flooding to the western part of the state, it was a shock to many that such a storm could cause that level of devastation so far from the coast. It was a surprise even to Getty Images photographers who frequently cover disasters.The photographers I spoke with, none of us could remember covering a hurricane, or the effects of a hurricane, in such a mountainous region, says Mario Tama, a staff photographer at Getty Images who was on the ground after the hurricane. That speaks to how these things are evolving.Asheville, North Carolina, October 3, 2024. [Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images]Tama has worked for Getty for more than 20 years, and hes had a front row seat to the way climate change has evolved. Year after year Tama photographs the hurricanes, fires, droughts, and other disasters fueled by the immense amounts of greenhouse gases were emitting into the atmosphere.Liesl Steiner outside her flood damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on October 4, 2024 in Swannanoa, North Carolina. [Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images]Not only have the disasters changedtheyve gotten stronger and more commonthe way photographers cover them has as well. During Helene, Tama says one photographer hiked over a mudslide that blocked a road in order to reach a remote, devastated town. (He himself made it through after the road was cleared.) The level of destruction was a new challenge for photographers to navigateand, he notes, for FEMA and other first responders, too.Flooded streets near Porto Alegre City Hall on May 17, 2024, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. [Photo: Jefferson Bernardes/Getty Images]Technological advances have also changed the experience. Thanks to Starlinks satellite internet, photographers can get their images out even faster when in remote areas, like when covering wildfires, or if cell coverage is down. Its incredibly important to get images out quickly that are from verified sources in this era of misinformation, he says. Imagery has a way of bringing home the truth, in a way that words cant quite do. During Helene, he remembers, people thanked him for being there and getting their story out.Even amid all that tragedy, Tama has witnessed uplifting moments of communities coming together to respond to these climate events. Whether its doctors driving from faraway states to help in the aftermath of Helene, or the way the residents of Lahaina, Hawaii, came together for the one-year anniversary of its devastating fire, hes seen the power and bonds of community.A man walks through a debris-covered street after flash floods in the Sedav area of Valencia, Spain, on October 30, 2024. [Photo: David Ramos/Getty Images]In 2024, the FEMA declared an unprecedented 179 disasters in the U.S. That equates to a disaster every two days. And its not only the U.S. seeing these effectsfrom the flooding in Spain to the Canadian wildfires, climate disasters were felt around the world.Billing Aquadrome flooded after heavy rain on November 25, 2024, in Northampton, England. [Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images]Tama has felt that increase in his work, too, having to respond to more and more eventssometimes even in his own backyard. Tama lives in Los Angeles, and in early December got a call while asleep to go and cover the Franklin Fire in Malibu. He worked through that night and all the next day capturing the effects of theblaze.A firefighting helicopter drops water as the Franklin Fire continues to burn on December 10, 2024, near Malibu, California. [Photo Mario Tama/Getty Images]Its nothing compared to what the firefighters go through, he notesthey can work for days on end fighting these extreme fires. But its a sign of the dedication, and the demands, on photographers to capture this reality, and share it with the rest of the world. In a way, most photojournalists are becoming kind of responders to climate events, he says, whether that was why they got into this or not.