[Special Report] Alone & Under Water: Learning from Hurricane Helene [episode]

Laura speaks to organizers in western North Carolina one year after Hurricane Helene

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Description:  When Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina in September 2024, it came as a shock, hitting mountains, not coasts, and flooding rivers and communities with little experience of dealing with hurricanes. Helene quickly became one of the worst storms to ever hit the U.S., and in the absence of a quick response by state or federal government, other groups flooded in. Right-wing actors took advantage of the chaos, spreading rumors about looting and trying to boost their image. But it’s the mutual aid networks — some long standing, others new that responded with creative, effective strategies to distribute water, medicine and help communities rebuild. In this episode, Laura Flanders heads to some of the hardest-hit areas in western North Carolina and speaks with community activists to hear the lessons to be learned for the future. Amid Trump cuts to FEMA and the National Weather Service, the future for storm recovery in North Carolina is uncertain. But one thing's for sure — mutual aid support like Pansy Collective, Cherokee One Feather, Racial Justice Coalition (RJC), Rural Organizing and Resilience (ROAR) and Collaborativa La Milpa have the strategies and solutions we may all need for survival.

“It takes the state a long time to mobilize, and that might continue to be true as FEMA gets defunded . . . It’s imperative that people fight to keep their disaster response funding, but until then, we need to know how to respond ourselves.” - RT

“We were talking to the people that were staying in hotels because they had just lost everything and didn't know where they were going to get their next meal or their medicine. Talk to those people . . . We had those journalists, especially BIPOC journalists in Western North Carolina, making sure those stories were told.” - Brooklyn Brown (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)

Guests:

• Brooklyn Brown (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians): Reporter, Cherokee One Feather

•. RT Pansy

• Ayotunde Dixson: Racial Justice Coalition (RJC)

• Janet Kent: Rural Organizing and Resilience (ROAR)

• Tai Little: SEAC Village

• Alan Luis Ramirez: Collaborativa La Milpa

• Mab Segrest: Anti Racist Research Program, Blueprint NC

 

Watch the special report on YouTube; PBS World Channel, and on over 300 public stations across the country (check your listings, or search here via zipcode). Listen: Episode airing on community radio October 1st  (check here to see if your station is airing the show) & available as a podcast.

Full Episode Notes are located HERE.

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Music Credit:  “Dawn Summit" and "Thrum of Soil" by Blue Dot Sessions. Original sound design by Jeannie Hopper.

Special thanks:

Davyne Dial, General Manager:  WPVM FM 103.7 - Community Radio for Asheville

Mab Segrest

Blueprint NC

Additional crew: DL Anderson, Jon Laww

RESOURCES:

Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:

•   Hurricane Helene 1 Year After, Survival Stories: Ayotunde Dixson, Tai Little: Listen: Exclusive Bonus Conversation

•  Community Action After Hurricane Helene: BIPOC Media Answers the Call:  Watch / Listen: Episode and Full Uncut Conversation

•  Power Grids Under Attack: The Threat is Domestic Terrorism – Not Drag Artists:  Watch / Listen: Episode

•  Collective Real Estate: Land Without Landlords?:  Watch / Listen: Episode

•  A Co-op Story: People's Construction in Rockaway:  Watch / Listen: Episode

Related Articles and Resources:

•  Hurricane in the Mountains:  What we can learn from Western North Carolina, A Blueprint NC Special Report, by May Segrest with Sofia Trovato, May 2025

•  North Carolina government calculates Hurricane Helene damages, needs at least $53B, October 24, 2024, The AP

•  We Are The Relief:  How Queer Appalachian Mutual Aid Showed Up After Helene, by Basil Vaughn Soper, October 22, 2024, Them.us

•  Sunday thought:  A national reckoning, (As we slide further into a dysfunctional police state), Robert Reich, July 6, 2025, Substack

•  Across a Hundred Muddy Hollers:  How mutual aid is filling the gaps in the recovery of North Carolina mountain communities after Hurricane Helene, by Justin Cook, December 10, 2024, The Progressive Magazine

•  When the Hurricane-Relief Worker Turns Out To Be a Neo-Nazi, by Tawnell D. Hobbs, Jennifer Levitz and Joe Barrett, October 10, 2024, The Wall Street Journal

•  Hurricane Helene brews up storm of online falsehoods and threats, October 8, 2024, Institute for Strategic Dialogue

•  Extremists Co-Opt Hurricane Response to Blame Israel, Incite a Storm of Hateful Narratives, October 11, 2024, by Center on Extremism, ADL

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