Six months after Helene, a check-in on tourism, restaurants, relief funding, and the wildfires hampering cleanup

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The word "Due" read from top-down and "South" left-right, with the U shared between them. Reminiscent of a compass.

Due South

Six months after Helene, a check-in on tourism, restaurants, relief funding, and the wildfires hampering cleanup

By Jeff Tiberii,

Leoneda Inge, Stacia Brown, Rachel McCarthy, Cole del Charco

Published March 27, 2025 at 12:37 PM EDT

Marshall residents walking through Main Street. — Marshall, NC residents walking through Main Street, surveying damage in the immediate aftermath of Helene.

Update on state and federal relief funding
Six months after Helene, Gov. Josh Stein has signed into a law a bill that will provide more than a half-million dollars in relief funding. The funding approval comes as a new disaster is further ravaging the region, as Henderson and Polk counties continue to fight wildfires.
Gerard Albert III, Western North Carolina Rural Communities Reporter, Blue Ridge Public Radio

Checking in on tourism, arts, and restaurants in WNC
We turn our attention to Avery County 鈥� home to Grandfather Mountain, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and several ski resorts 鈥� for an update on business recovery and tourism. And we check back in with two activists who are entrenched in the Asheville arts, restaurant and hospitality industries to talk about the 鈥測es and鈥� of living with both grief AND hope.
Robin Morgan, Executive Director, Avery County Chamber of Commerce
Jessica Tomasin, studio manager of Echo Mountain Recording Studio, Asheville
Jen Hampton, co-chair, Asheville Food and Beverage United, Asheville

Helene debris is causing problems for wildfire fighting
Fire management specialists and landowners tried to clear up debris left over from Helene last fall, but some of the brush they didn鈥檛 get to is making it hard to fight an ongoing wildfire in Polk County.
Zack Turner, Climate Reporter at WFAE

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Jeff Tiberii

Jeff Tiberii is the co-host of 吉彩网网站's "Due South." Jeff joined 吉彩网网站 in 2011. During his 20 years in public radio, he was Morning Edition Host at WFDD and 吉彩网网站鈥檚 Greensboro Bureau Chief and later, the Capitol Bureau Chief. Jeff has covered state and federal politics, produced the radio documentary 鈥淩ight Turn,鈥� launched a podcast, and was named North Carolina Radio Reporter of the Year four times.

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Leoneda Inge

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of 吉彩网网站's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at 吉彩网网站 as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda鈥檚 work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.

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Stacia Brown

Stacia L. Brown is a writer and audio storyteller who has worked in public media since 2016, when she partnered with the Association of Independents in Radio and Baltimore's WEAA 88.9 to create The Rise of Charm City, a narrative podcast that centered community oral histories. She has worked for WAMU鈥檚 daily news radio program, 1A, as well as 吉彩网网站鈥檚 The State of Things. Stacia was a producer for 吉彩网网站's award-winning series, Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon and a co-creator of the station's first children's literacy podcast, The Story Stables. She served as a senior producer for two Ten Percent Happier podcasts, Childproof and More Than a Feeling. In early 2023, she was interim executive producer for WNYC鈥檚 The Takeaway.

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Rachel McCarthy

Rachel McCarthy is a producer for "Due South." She previously worked at 吉彩网网站 as a producer for "The Story with Dick Gordon." More recently, Rachel was podcast managing editor at Capitol Broadcasting Company where she developed narrative series and edited a daily podcast. She also worked at "The Double Shift" podcast as supervising producer. Rachel learned about audio storytelling at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Prior to working in audio journalism, she was a research assistant at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.

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Cole del Charco

Cole del Charco is an audio producer and writer based in Durham. He's made stories for public radio's All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Marketplace. Before joining Due South, he spent time as a freelance journalist, an education and daily news reporter for 吉彩网网站, and a podcast producer for WFAE in Charlotte.

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