{"id":192516,"date":"2025-09-30T15:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/192516\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T15:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:01:09","slug":"looking-back-now-over-a-year-after-covering-news-of-helene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/192516\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking back now, over a year after covering news of Helene"},"content":{"rendered":"

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 I had been employed at News 13 for just over four months when Helene hit. We all knew it was going to be big, but we just didn’t know how big.<\/p>\n

Our meteorologists were concerned. You could see it in their faces every time they gave the forecast.<\/p>\n

I’ll never forget the day before on Sept. 26. I was in the breakroom and the noon show had just ended. Meteorologist Meghan Danahey walked in. <\/p>\n

It was raining.<\/p>\n

ONE YEAR LATER: REMEMBERING THE 108 LIVES LOST IN NORTH CAROLINA TO HURRICANE HELENE<\/a><\/p>\n

She stood there watching the rain. It looked like she was about to cry…I asked if she was OK.<\/p>\n

She said, “Oh, Dean…this is going to be bad…so bad.” <\/p>\n

She put her hand over her mouth and then said something I’ll never forget: “Those poor, poor people.” <\/p>\n

Then she quietly walked out.<\/p>\n

I write and edit the website stories here at WLOS. My shift the next day on Sept. 27 began at 4 a.m. <\/p>\n

Helene was already here.<\/p>\n

HELENE WIPED AWAY PRIVATE ROADS AND BRIDGES. A NEW STATE PROGRAM IS STEPPING IN TO HELP<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a dark, eerie drive into work. Power was out everywhere. Patton Avenue was pitch black. The first lights I saw were the lights on the signs for the on-ramp to Interstate 240 and Westgate. They were flickering.<\/p>\n

Those lights still flicker today – a constant reminder of that horrible day.<\/p>\n

When I got to work, phones were still working in the newsroom, and they were ringing constantly. People were calling in with horrific stories. It was a day of heartache and heroics… and a day that would change the landscape of Western North Carolina forever.<\/p>\n

Now over a year later, the recovery continues, as does the fear. As I wrote this on Sept. 27, 2025, it was thundering and pouring rain outside, and a landslide shut down a popular road in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. <\/p>\n

A day later, a tropical depression at first looked like it was headed straight for us. But now, that storm is shifting out to sea, as we all breathe a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n

All across WNC, ceremonies were held on Sept. 27, 2025, to honor those lost. <\/p>\n

A total of 108 people in North Carolina died because of Helene. Their lives will be forever remembered, all of them lost to a storm we wish we could forget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 I had been employed at News 13 for just over four months when Helene…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[62229,192,47095,112004,112003,2256,683,79,4388,18775],"class_list":{"0":"post-192516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ceremonies","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-hurricane-helene","11":"tag-lives-lost","12":"tag-meteorologists","13":"tag-north-carolina","14":"tag-recovery","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-storm","17":"tag-western-north-carolina"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}