Helene was Western North Carolina‘s Katrina—especially for the counties surrounding Asheville: Buncombe, Mitchell, Henderson, McDowell, Rutherford, Haywood, Yancey, Burke, and some adjacent ones in North Carolina and Tennessee. As with Katrina, the issue wasn’t wind. It was flooding, especially along creeks and rivers. Most notably destructive were the Swannanoa River and French Broad River, which flow down through Asheville. Hundreds of people are among the missing. Countless roads, including interstate and other major highways, are out. Towns and communities—Spruce Pine, Swananoa, Chimney Rock, Mitchell, Lake Lure, and many others—have been wiped away, or are in ruins. Roads across the region are gone, or closed. Electric, water, gas, sewer, and other utilities are expected to be down in many places for weeks.
One public utility that is working enough for people to keep up with the news is radio. Many (perhaps most) stations are off the air, but some survive, and are providing constant service to residents and people out of the area who want to stay informed. I recommend Blue Ridge Public Radio (WCQS/88.1) and any of the local iHeart stations . All of the iHeart stations listed in the image above are carrying the same continuous live coverage, which is excellent. (I’m listening right now to the WWNC/570 stream.)
Of course, there’s lots of information on social media (e.g. BlueSky, Xitter, Threads), but if you want live coverage, radio still does what only it can do. Yes, you need special non-phone equipment to get it when the cell system doesn’t work, but a lot of us still have those things. Enjoy the medium while we still have it.
Item: WWNC just reported that WART/95.5 FM in Marshall, with its studios in a train caboose by the river, is gone (perhaps along with much of the town—for more on that, go here).
I hope when this is over that iHeart keeps one of its six stations (in that image above) on the Helene recovery case. Or that it partners with BPR or the Asheville Citizen-Times on continuing live radio service to the region while recovery continues.
More sources:
[Later, October 7, 2024…] Nice piece in the Asheville Citizen-Times about how iHeart’s WWNC stayed on the air and became a go-to place for constant updates, and human connection, during recovery from Helene.
[Later, October 20, 2024…] iHeart seems done with its wall-to-wall coverage of Helene and its aftermath. All of the stations in the image above have returned to their normal programming and schedules—or so I gather. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.) All their websites say “Listen For The Latest News As The Cleanup & Recovery Efforts Continue” with a link to the station’s stream page at iHeart.com.
Meanwhile, Blue Ridge Public Radio remains on the case. Normal programming is mostly news and public affairs anyway, so recovery coverage and service is in their wheelhouse. On the BPR website is a list of Helene resources, live updates at https://www.bpr.org/live-updates/live-blog-hurricane-helene-wnc, After Helene text briefings, and an After Helene newsletter (to which I just subscribed). I also just learned that WPVM/103.7, broadcasting from atop the Public Service Building downtown, has also been on the case and sending PSAs out to listeners.
The original version of this post was cross-posted on Trunkli, my blog on infrastructure.
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