“I’ve learned to realize that we’re still very much left behind in rural areas — that we don’t have the same opportunities, that somehow we’re still not prepared even though we’ve been through so much and learned a lot.”

That’s how Ricardo Bello Ball, a Latino leader with the organization Unidxs, reflects one year after the worst natural disaster in the region’s history. The experience left an uncomfortable lesson: if another hurricane were to hit the southern Appalachian Mountains, his organization — one of the few Latino-led groups in the area — would once again be overwhelmed.

Unidxs works with immigrant families in rural communities across western North Carolina, providing support, guidance, and basic assistance in times of crisis.

With limited resources, it has become a point of re

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