Gerard Albert III/Blue Ridge Public Radio Robin Longinotti doesn’t have much of a home to return to after flood waters from Hurricane Helene tore through her trailer. Longinotti evacuated her Hot Springs home before the storm and returned to find only a handful of salvageable possessions. The loss didn’t stop...

Virginia Bridges/The News & Observer Three United States representatives from North Carolina requested a national intelligence briefing on the spread of online misinformation hindering efforts to support and rebuild parts of Western North Carolina washed away by Hurricane Helene. “This information is dangerous to saving life and property right now,...

Rolando Arrieta/WFAE Radio Most recreational rivers in Western North Carolina were decimated by Hurricane Helene’s floods and are littered with debris. The Green River, a popular attraction for many outdoor adventure enthusiasts, is one of them. “I’m looking at the river, which was once 50 feet maximum wide,” said Woody...

Cory Vaillancourt/Smoky Mountain News Western North Carolina’s small businesses, even those that suffered no damage, now occupy an unenviable position — struggling to rebuild and retain employees amid disruption to the transportation infrastructure that drives the tourist trade while still paying off COVID-era loans. Canton’s mayor is calling for help...

Andrew R. Jones/Asheville Watchdog Asheville Water Resources has restored running water to almost all of the city, but three weeks after Tropical Storm Helene, workers are still playing catch up with breaking or difficult-to-access areas, as well as water purity. “We’ve gotten service to 90-ish percent of our system, probably...

Brianna Atkinson/WUNC Radio Two workers remove mud and debris from a flooded area just outside App State’s Rankin Hall on the Boone campus. The UNC System is assessing damages to public universities in western North Carolina, and combined with lost revenue and other costs, the tally will likely come to...

Brian Murphy/WRAL News The two men running to be North Carolina’s next attorney general share several resume lines: Attended law school at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, represented part of Mecklenburg County in the state Senate and are serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. But that’s...

Trista Talton/Coastal Review Online Topsail Island towns and their counties have joined forces in asking state legislators for a moratorium on shellfish leases in their waterways. The Pender County Board of Commissioners last week adopted a resolution calling for the state to pump the brakes on issuing new shellfish lease...

Peter Castagno/Port City Daily One of the focus points of vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s Wilmington rally Wednesday evening was Helene recovery response. Meanwhile, former officials seeking to influence a second Trump administration want to eliminate the National Weather Service and FEMA disaster grants. Vance, currently a Republican senator from...

Becky Johnson/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer As the dire lack of water in Asheville dragged on, convoys of tanker trucks have been tapping Waynesville’s pristine and plentiful water supply. “Within two to three days after the flood, we started getting inquiries,” said Waynesville Public Services Director Jeff Stines. “There are numerous tankers...

Kip Tabb/Outer Banks Voice As the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission (CRC) seeks to again reinstate Area of Environmental Concern (AEC) protections for Jockey’s Ridge State Park that the state’s Rules Review Commission (RRC) removed in October of last year, the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management (DCM) held a...

Jeff Stein and David J. Lynch/The Washington Post Former president Donald Trump is campaigning on the most significant increase in tariffs in close to a century, preparing an attack on the international trade order that would probably raise prices, hurt the stock market and spark economic feuds with much of...

Steve Harrison/WFAE Radio A regional transportation planning organization Wednesday voted to advance a plan for the North Carolina Department of Transportation to partner with a private company to build express toll lanes on Interstate 77 in south Charlotte. Under the proposal, a private company would build the toll lanes, which...

Becky Johnson/The (Waynesville) Mountaineer All options are on the table for the monumental task of fixing collapsed portions of Interstate 40 along a four-mile stretch through the Pigeon River Gorge. The N.C. Department of Transportation will use a novel approach to expedite the job and attract the best and brightest...

John Boyle/Asheville Watchdog About 75 to 80 percent of Asheville’s water customers again have city water, albeit a non-potable variety that has sedimentation in it. At the Wednesday morning daily Helene briefing, Asheville Water Resources spokesperson Clay Chandler gave that estimate on restoration to the system’s 63,000 customers, with the...