Western NC

For hundreds of communities nationwide, plans to protect against natural disasters and climate change have been upended because of the Trump administration's elimination of a federal grant program.

Federal officials say two wildfires spreading in western North Carolina have burned more than 2 square miles of wooded area. The larger fire in the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness Area near Robbinsville has burned about 800 acres and was 0% contained on Wednesday.

Hurricane Helene hit areas north of Asheville particularly hard. That’s where flooding from the North Toe River devastated Spruce Pine, a town of about 2,000 people.

After Helene's catastrophic damage in western North Carolina, conservation groups say an amendment to the Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan will help recovery efforts moving forward.

Mobile wastewater units bridge the gap as the town brings its damaged sewage treatment plant back online.

Truist Financial Corporation has announced that it is making hundreds of millions of dollars in loans available to residents, businesses and local governments affected by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.

Jose Sandoval was one of the voices on Blue Ridge Public Radio broadcasting life-saving information in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. And he started sharing it in Spanish too.

Human traffickers are trickling into western North Carolina to exploit the trail of vulnerability that Hurricane Helene left in its wake, a law enforcement representative warned at a recent North Carolina Human Trafficking Commission meeting.

A career archaeologist with the U.S. Forest Service says managers have been engaging in irresponsible and illegal behavior that has resulted in damage to Native American sites across the forested slopes of North Carolina.

Some hurricane-impacted households in North Carolina and Florida will receive one-time, direct cash payments of up to $1,500 on Friday.