For live reports on recovery from recent Hurricane Helene flooding, your best sources are Blue Ridge Public Radio (WCQS/88.1) and iHeart (WWNC/570 and others above, all carrying the same feed). Three FM signals come from the towers on High Top Mountain, which overlooks Asheville from the west side: 1) WCQS, 2) a translator on 102.1 for WNCW/88.7, and 3) a translator on 97.7 for WKSF/99.9’s HD-2 stream. At this writing, WCQS (of Blue Ridge Public Radio) and the iHeart stations (including WKSF, called Kiss Country) are running almost continuous public service coverage toward rescue and recovery. Hats off to them.
Helene was Western North Carolina‘s Katrina—especially for the counties surrounding Asheville: Buncombe, Mitchell, Henderson, McDowell, Rutherford, Haywood, Yancey, Burke, and some adjacent ones in North Carolina and Tennessee. As with Katrina, the issue wasn’t wind. It was flooding, especially along creeks and rivers. Most notably destructive was the French Broad River, which runs through Asheville. Hundreds of people are among the missing. Countless roads, including interstate and other major highways, are out. Communities have been washed away.
For following what’s happening there, I highly recommend listening to Blue Ridge Public Radio (WCQS/88.1) and any of the local iHeart stations (listed the image above). All of them are carrying the same continuous live coverage, which is excellent. (I’m listening right now to the WWNC/570 stream.)
Of course, there’s lots of information on social media (e.g. BlueSky, Xitter, Threads), but if you want live coverage, radio still does the job. Yes, you need special non-phone equipment to get it when the cell system doesn’t work, but a lot of us still have those things. Enjoy the medium while we still have it.
Item: WWNC just reported that WART/95.5 FM in Marshall, with its studios in a train caboose by the river, is gone (perhaps along with much of the town).
