Jaymie Baxley/NC Health News The staff of the Asheville-based Manna Foodbank tried their best to prepare for Hurricane Helene. Workers at the nonprofit’s primary distribution site just feet from the Swannanoa River moved tens of thousands of food items onto tall shelves ahead of the storm’s arrival. The shelves, they...

Liz Schlemmer/WUNC Radio On the day before Helene hit, the last thing McDowell County Schools’ Superintendent Tracy Grit did was visit Old Fort Elementary. He walked the perimeter in the rain and stood outside where it overlooks Mill Creek. The school was built only five years ago, on a berm...

Kara Fohner/USA Today Network Reports of more than 160 missing children in Spruce Pine are not true. In fact, there is only one person who first responders have not managed to locate since Tropical Storm Helene, according to the Mitchell County Manager Allen Cook. Cook told USA Today on Oct....

Pat Kimbrough/High Point Enterprise The City Council has chosen the top priorities to implement from the One High Point Commission report. City-hired consultants will work with staff on policies that address “housing disparities,” “access to transportation” and “economic opportunities.” The city-commissioned 245-page “Reparations and Reconciliation Report,” which was completed in...

Ryan Kelly/Mount Airy News Those affected by Hurricane Helene have been on the receiving end in the past two weeks of donations and supplies from residents in this community and across the state meant to help them through a challenging time. Not everyone is sending care packages, water, socks, and...

Moss Brennan/The Watauga Democrat The Watauga County Board of Education has approved a Valle Crucis School relocation plan for students and staff after Hurricane Helene severely damaged the current school. The approved plan — which gives BOE Chair Gary Childers and WCS Superintendent Leslie Alexander the authority to execute any...

Christina A. Cassidy & Nicholas Riccardi/The Associated Press The latest method of voting to fall into the political crosshairs is the way overseas voters — including members of the military stationed abroad — cast their ballots. The process is governed by federal law and implemented by states. In recent weeks,...

Brianna Sacks & Dan Lamothe/The Washington Post Federal emergency response personnel directed employees operating Saturday in hard-hit Rutherford County, N.C., to stop working and move to a different area because of concerns over “armed militia” threatening government workers in the region, according to an email sent to federal agencies helping...

Victoria A. Ifatusin/Asheville Watchdog Buncombe homeowners hit hardest by flood damage from Hurricane Helene will likely face enormous costs to rebuild with limited options to pay for it. Fewer than one percent of Buncombe structures, including homes and businesses, are covered by flood insurance, according to an Asheville Watchdog analysis...

Grace Vitaglione/NC Health News With the end of pandemic-era federal supports for child care centers earlier this year, many centers across North Carolina faced a funding “cliff” that threatened their stability, and for some, even their survival. State lawmakers extended funding in June, so child care centers across North Carolina...

Liz Schlemmer/WUNC Radio On the day before Helene hit, the last thing McDowell County Schools’ Superintendent Tracy Grit did was visit Old Fort Elementary. He walked the perimeter in the rain and stood outside where it overlooks Mill Creek. The school was built only five years ago, on a berm...

Steve Harrison/WFAE Radio I watch a lot of football. Which means I have seen — on a seemingly endless loop — Donald Trump’s new commercials that mock Kamala Harris for supporting in 2019 health care and surgeries for inmates who want to transition to a different gender. That includes migrants...

Becky Johnson/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer The Pigeon River scoured away the mountainside that held up the roadbed. Now that roadbed is gone, collapsing out from under the interstate. Enormous sections of asphalt lie in pieces in the river at the bottom of a near-vertical escarpment. In essence, I-40 is gone. “You...

Morgan Casey/CityView “You’re gonna need these,” says a soldier as she tosses a pair of hand warmers to anyone ready to catch them. It’s about 8 a.m. on Thursday, two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina. The steam from everyone’s coffee cups is visible. So is their breath....

Kelly Kenoyer/WHQR Highlands Village Apartments in New Bern, NC, was developed by Norco Management, but rising interest rates and insurance costs are making this kind of affordable housing complex very difficult to build. Climate change has driven rising insurance rates for all kinds of real estate, but especially in the...