Fifteen days after Tropical Storm Helene sent debris, runoff and a cocktail of toxins — including raw sewage and pharmaceuticals — pouring into the French Broad River in the fall of 2024, Shea Tuberty set out to investigate the damage.

The storm had carved an improbable path from the Florida Gulf Coast into the North Carolina mountains, taking lives and tearing apart communities. Days after it passed, Tuberty — a professor in Appalachian State University’s Department of Biology who’s known by friends as “the water guy”— said he was contacted by friends downstream in Tennessee who asked him to collect water samples to test for contaminants.

The disaster stirred painful memories for Tuberty,

“I’ve got PTSD from back in my 20s, when I lost my sister to a Middle Tennessee flood on C

See Full Page