McDowell County students are back in class after Helene, but for some, not at their own school

By Jeff Tiberii,

Published October 15, 2024 at 10:00 AM EDT

Water from a flooded creek carried this bus about a mile away from where it was parked at Old Fort Elementary during Helene.

In the aftermath of Helene, McDowell County Schools educators weren't teaching in the classroom — they were helping rescue operations in their western North Carolina community. Two weeks later, they're back in school.

WUNC education reporter Liz Schlemmer tells co-host Jeff Tiberii about her recent reporting on one western North Carolina school community coping with life after the floods.

Guest

Liz Schlemmer, education reporter, WUNC

Tags

Due South Helene

Jeff Tiberii

Jeff Tiberii is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Jeff joined WUNC in 2011. During his 20 years in public radio, he was Morning Edition Host at WFDD and WUNC’s Greensboro Bureau Chief and later, the Capitol Bureau Chief. Jeff has covered state and federal politics, produced the radio documentary “Right Turn,” launched a podcast, and was named North Carolina Radio Reporter of the Year four times.

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Liz Schlemmer

Liz Schlemmer is WUNC's Education Reporter, covering preschool through higher education. Email: lschlemmer@wunc.org

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Rachel McCarthy

Rachel McCarthy is a producer for "Due South." She previously worked at WUNC as a producer for "The Story with Dick Gordon." More recently, Rachel was podcast managing editor at Capitol Broadcasting Company where she developed narrative series and edited a daily podcast. She also worked at "The Double Shift" podcast as supervising producer. Rachel learned about audio storytelling at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Prior to working in audio journalism, she was a research assistant at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.

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