As we mark the one-year anniversary of Helene, the images of floodwaters tearing through Western North Carolina are still vivid. Lives, homes, and livelihoods were lost. Roads and trails were washed out. Families were displaced. Yet what stays with me most is not only the devastation. It is what came after: the unmistakable truth that we are in this together.

Storms like Helene don’t just wash away roads and homes. They compromise every layer of community life: infrastructure, from bridges to water systems; economy, as businesses close and jobs disappear; health and safety, when hospitals are stretched and families face trauma; and communications, as power outages and downed networks leave people cut off. In those first days, it felt like the very systems we depend on had collapsed.

Firs

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