It’s been a grueling, emotional week for North Carolina as we learn the incredible toll that Hurricane Helene took on our state and its cherished mountains. Even now, a week after the storm’s arrival, the scope of the lives lost, the property destroyed and the landscape forever changed is hard to comprehend.
There are so many stories and images that will be seared forever in our minds.
On Tuesday afternoon, I got a text message from reporter Josh Shaffer and photojournalist Kaitlin McKeown , who had followed a convoy of relief vehicles traveling into hard-hit Avery County in the North Carolina High Country: “We’re the first reporters in Banner Elk.”…