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Articles and interviews on flood solutions
After Helene: Voices of Recovery
When Hurricane Helene tore through Western North Carolina, it left behind collapsed homes, washed-out roads, and communities facing a long road to recovery. Our “After Helene: Voices of Recovery” series puts a human face on those efforts, featuring testimonials from locally elected leaders who not only lived through the storm but also work every day to rebuild their communities.
Each video captures their firsthand experience and what it will take to finish the job. These are the voices that know their communities best, and they have something important to say. Watch the series to hear directly from the leaders on the ground, and read below to learn more about how AFC is supporting recovery and long-term resilience across the region, through the Western North Carolina Recovery & Resilience Partnership.
After Helene
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Dennis Aldridge serves Avery County, North Carolina — a mountain community devastated by Hurricane Helene in 2024. Eighteen months later, he is still confronting a $57 million recovery bill on a $42 million annual budget. Through the American Flood Coalition’s WNC Recovery & Resilience Partnership, Avery County is rewriting what disaster recovery looks like — and naming what federal and state partners still need to deliver.
Our work in western North Carolina
In January 2025, local leaders in western North Carolina, supported by the American Flood Coalition, launched the Western North Carolina Recovery & Resilience Partnership (WNC Partnership). The WNC Partnership is a community-led effort to secure state and federal financial support, resources, and reforms to aid in recovery and rebuilding after Hurricane Helene and to better prepare North Carolina for future disasters. The WNC Partnership is also committed to advancing policy improvements so local communities in the region, across the state, and around the country are better able to prepare for and recover from disasters and build long-term resilience.
Since its formation, AFC has brought members of the WNC Partnership to Washington, D.C., twice for meetings with senior leaders from the White House, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Capitol Hill to elevate the region’s ongoing recovery and long-term resilience needs and advocate for improvements to federal disaster processes that would benefit communities nationwide.
Learn more about AFC
The American Flood Coalition advances solutions that protect flood-affected communities and connects them with state and federal leaders.