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A book sits in the street outside of a destroyed home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

It’s taken days to understand the full devastation of Hurricane Helene, both here in Florida and up through North Carolina.
In Florida, boats rest on streets and in trees, showing the ruinous path of the storm surge. On block after block, in cities and towns across the state, soggy piles of people’s lives and livelihoods sit on the curb.
In North Carolina, my colleague Tony Elkins is sharing from Asheville, where he’s safe and busy clearing the roads with neighbors.
This is a glimpse at coverage in just two of the many areas impacted by Hurricane Helene. If you’ve seen powerful work that deserves to be recognized, including from Georgia and South Carolina, please reach out. (mailto:[email protected])
In North Carolina, Blue Ridge Public Radio ([link removed]) “has the best reporting,” Elkins wrote colleagues on Slack from the top of his driveway on Monday. “99.9 ([link removed]) I think is the star. It’s an iHeart station. They are broadcasting 24/7 with a call-in format. People are helping and asking for help. It’s absolutely uplifting and devastating. You literally can’t listen for more than a few hours without breaking down. Their DJs are literally holding the community together.”
Poynter’s Angela Fu spoke with several journalists covering Hurricane Helene’s aftermath, the loss of communication and basic necessities ([link removed]) .
That includes the nonprofit Asheville Watchdog ([link removed]) , which is already asking tough and necessary questions about response time. The Asheville Citizen-Times started offering text message updates ([link removed]) . Spanish language nonprofit Enlace Latino NC ([link removed]) posts critical information about food, water and FEMA assistance. Multicultural newspaper The Urban News ([link removed]) directed people to a Starlink station so they could contact family. And Shannan Bowen, executive director of the North Carolina News Workshop, is organizing pooled resources
([link removed]) to help newsrooms in Western North Carolina.
In Florida, WFTS meteorologist Denis Phillips is the voice for what’s coming and the reminder to stay calm. He uses Instagram ([link removed]) and Facebook ([link removed]) to answer questions and keep us informed. When he starts posting or goes live, you know it’s serious.
Tampa Bay’s NPR station, WUSF, is collecting people’s voices and stories ([link removed]) . Axios Tampa Bay is directing people on how to give and where to help ([link removed]) .
The Tampa Bay Times, which Poynter owns, didn’t just cover the tense before ([link removed]) , devastating during ([link removed]) and heartbreaking after ([link removed]) of Hurricane Helene. Journalists there also quickly put the storm into perspective ([link removed]) as “the worst storm in a century.”
It’s powerful work, considering the Times is significantly smaller than it was a few months ago after cutting 60 jobs through buyouts ([link removed]) . Some in that newsroom were also impacted by the storm.
The home of a Tampa Bay Times photojournalists, who has spent years documenting hurricanes ([link removed]) , was flooded. His newsroom and community are stepping in to raise money ([link removed]) .
[link removed]
Screenshot, GoFundMe

For Sharon Kennedy Wynne, a longtime reporter at the Tampa Bay Times who has led her community on wild adventures, there’s a meal train ([link removed]) as her family prepares to gut and rebuild their home.
We see this from local newsrooms during nearly every disaster, even if it takes time for the outside world to see it. The nonprofit Honolulu Civil Beat shifted into a breaking news operation ([link removed]) following the Maui wildfires in 2023. In 2022, Florida talk radio hosts stayed on the air for hours after Hurricane Ian ([link removed]) . In 2021, a local radio station in Kentucky stepped up after deadly tornadoes ([link removed]) .
“No matter what you hear out of Western North Carolina,” my colleague, Elkins, wrote on Threads ([link removed]) , “neighbors are what’s getting us through this.”
Regardless of newsroom size, the funding model, the audience, the medium or the mission, local journalists are our neighbors, too.

While you’re here:
* On Thursday, Oct. 3, join Poynter for a free webinar with Dr. Sanjay Gupta ([link removed]) , “COVID conspiracies, flu facts and respiratory realness: The journalists’ guide to debunking health misinformation.”
* And read something that will ring true for a lot of us ([link removed]) : “I know how to be a journalist. I’m still figuring out how to lead a newsroom.”
* Check out the five newest partners ([link removed]) for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network.
* Dig into this “practical guide for a more equitable and service-oriented form of journalism,” from the Agora Journalism Center ([link removed]) .
* And learn more about the newest Press Forward local chapter in Silicon Valley ([link removed]) .

That’s it for me. Hug your people.
Kristen
Kristen Hare
Faculty
The Poynter Institute
@kristenhare ([link removed])

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