Aarik Long/The Mountaineer Despite hundreds of moving parts, rescue efforts in Haywood County ran like a well-oiled machine during and after Hurricane Helene, thanks in large part to the controlled chaos at the two main command centers. Storm preparation began about a week ahead of Helene’s arrival, when weather reports...

Ryley Ober/Asheville Citizen Times Multiple 500-gallon propane tanks, shredded particles from Silver-Line Plastics, three transformers containing mineral oil: these are just some of the items of waterway debris reported by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality in Buncombe County alone. As the area approaches three months since Tropical Storm...

Felicia Sonmez/Blue Ridge Public Radio Unemployment in Asheville and Buncombe County eased slightly in November 2024, although five Western North Carolina counties still have the highest jobless rates in the state. The figures from the North Carolina Department of Commerce give the latest snapshot of the region’s recovery from the...

Brianna Atkinson/WUNC Radio When Damian Fernández first moved from Florida to Swannanoa, North Carolina, last year, he thought he’d come to a “climate sanctuary.” For a while, Warren Wilson College was the weather safe haven Fernández expected. The storms he initially saw as president of Warren Wilson College were nothing...

Dave Philipps/The New York Times Alicia Arritt spent years as an Army nurse working with combat veterans with brain injuries. And when she started a relationship with Matthew Livelsberger in 2018, long before he shot himself and blew up a Cybertruck in Las Vegas this past week, she recognized many...

Jimmy Potts/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer Haywood County Emergency Services Director Travis Donaldson is reminding Haywood County residents that disaster assistance has been extended into early February, and encouraging them to consider their options for help with flood recovery. The Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster unemployment assistance and individual financial assistance programs...

Jennifer Fernandez/NC Health News Charlotte Sparks likes to get her hair done at Empire Beauty School. It gives students a chance to practice what they’re learning, the 84-year-old Greensboro resident said. On the weekend before Christmas, the school’s beauty salon also offered clients a chance to learn. The school was...

Coastal Review Online A federal report that tracks industrial releases of chemicals into the environment will include additional PFAS, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday. Nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances have been added to the Toxics Release Inventory, or TRI, a running list of chemicals manufactured and used by...

Guy Lucas/High Point Enterprise A state judge has ordered the foreclosure sale of the historic Castle McCulloch property in a complicated financial case dating back 20 years. The trouble for Richard Harris, the owner of Historic Castle McCulloch LLC and Castle McCulloch Inc., stems from 2004, when he agreed to...

April Laissle/WFDD Radio A judge will soon decide whether a lawsuit related to the Winston Weaver fertilizer plant fire can move forward. The suit was filed on behalf of five residents who were evacuated from their homes during the January 2022 fire. It alleges the company was negligent in failing...

Evey Weisblat/CityView Public school students in Cumberland County will face more severe consequences for missing school and stricter guidelines for excused absences starting Monday. The new attendance policy is effective immediately for high school students. It will go into effect for middle and elementary school students in August at the...

Scott D. Yost/Rhino Times The City of Greensboro has grown like kudzu over the last decade, and, while economic development leaders love that to no end, there are some downsides to all this new development and the huge influx of workers into Guilford County. Traffic on Battleground Avenue, to take...

Kip Tabb/Outer Banks Voice Tuesday, Dec. 31 was the last day for the DMV License Plate Office located in Island Pharmacy in Manteo. A part of Dare County life for over 30 years, when the last transaction was processed at 5:00 p.m., for the first time in well over 30...

Zachary Turner/WFAE Radio After four years of big climate investments, clean energy subsidies and recognition of climate change from the federal government, massive change is coming as incoming President Donald Trump and his administration prepare a complete 180 on many key policies. Trump signaled his support for fossil fuels on...

Carly Haynes/WRAL News Voting records, business records and social media posts show the driver suspected of a deadly terrorist attack on New Year’s Day in New Orleans once lived in North Carolina. Shamsud-Din Jabbar attended classes at Campbell University’s Fort Liberty (previously Fort Bragg) campus from 2012 to 2014, a...