Latest Disaster planning and response News
A Tennessee nurse and his dog died trying to save a man from floods driven by Hurricane Helene
As the Hurricane Helene-driven waters rose around the Nolichucky River in Tennessee, Boone McCrary, his girlfriend and his chocolate lab headed out on his fishing boat to search for a man who was stranded by floodwaters that had leveled his home. But the thick debris in the water jammed the boat's...
A week after Helene hit, thousands still without water struggle to find enough
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Nearly a week after Hurricane Helene brought devastation to western North Carolina, a shiny stainless steel tanker truck in downtown Asheville attracted residents carrying 5-gallon containers, milk jugs and buckets to fill with what has become a desperately scare resource...
After the deluge, the lies: Misinformation and hoaxes about Helene cloud the recovery
WASHINGTON (AP) — The facts emerging from Hurricane Helene's destruction are heartrending: Businesses and homes destroyed, whole communities nearly wiped out, hundreds of lives lost, hundreds of people missing. Yet this devastation and despair is not enough for the extremist...
When will the power return? Weary Carolinas residents long for relief after Helene's fury
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — The weary and worn residents of Julianne Johnson's neighborhood in Asheville have been getting by without electricity since Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast last week and upended their lives. They've been cooking on propane stoves and using dry erase boards to...
Amid Hurricane Helene's destruction, sports organizations launch relief efforts to aid storm victims
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — N.C. State football player Davin Vann was on the move, tiptoeing his way between obstacles in the Wolfpack's indoor practice facility midway through a game week. And it had nothing to do with the upcoming visit from Wake Forest. Instead, he...
Dunedin, New Zealand, records its wettest day in a century as flooding cuts the city off by road
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The New Zealand city of Dunedin was cut off by road due to flooding Friday after recording its wettest day in more than a century. Local authorities in the South Island city said more than 80 people who lived in low-lying areas spent the night in...
Soul-searching and regret over unheeded warnings follow Helene's destruction
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Before Hurricane Helene’s landfall last week, the National Weather Service began an all-out blitz to alert emergency planners, first responders and residents across the Southeast that the storm’s heavy rains and high winds could bring disaster hundreds of miles from the...
The search for the missing hits snags at every corner as Helene's death toll tops 200
PENSACOLA, N.C. (AP) — Rescue crews and volunteers facing obstacles at every turn in North Carolina’s remote mountains paddled canoes across swollen rivers and steered horses past mudslides in the rush to reach those stranded or missing by Hurricane Helene’s rampage that killed more than 200...
Residents of landslide-stricken city in California to get financial help
RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. (AP) — As much as $10,000 will be distributed to some residents of a peninsula on the edge of Los Angeles where worsening landslides have damaged homes and led to utility shutoffs. The Rancho Palos Verdes City Council on Tuesday allocated $2.8 million...
Southerners stay in touch the old-fashioned way after Helene cuts roads, power, phones
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Isolated and without electricity or phone service since Hurricane Helene inflicted devastation across the Southeast nearly a week ago, residents in the mountains of western North Carolina are relying on old-fashioned ways of communicating and coping. At the...
