The deadline for North Carolinians in 39 counties to apply for FEMA Individual Assistance after Hurricane Helene has been extended to Jan. 7, 2025. 

To the Editor:

Our EMS and fire departments, law-enforcement and many in serving military units have come to our region’s rescue. They  and caring ordinary neighbors who have put on their boots and gloves and helped so many people in desperate need are our heroes.

Hurricane Helene was and continues to be a traumatic event for our region, but even within the worst of it, there are stories of resilience and ingenuity in ways that many had to deal with making or getting meals while having no power or water for days.

To the Editor:

I am concerned about the effects of “Project 2025” — the Republican playbook for a second Trump administration — on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Project 2025 aims to change how federal agencies operate, and it could harm NOAA’s ability to do its work. 

On the morning of Sept. 27, as rain fell steadily from the pre-dawn sky, Travis Donaldson took a drive around the eastern end of Haywood County. Donaldson, the county’s emergency services director, made a lap around all the appropriate areas, finishing up in Cruso with the intention of turning around and heading back toward Waynesville, where an emergency operations center had already been set up. 

North Carolina homeowners and renters in 25 counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians who had uninsured damage or losses caused by Hurricane Helene may be eligible for FEMA disaster assistance. 

A growing tropical storm that’s expected to become a major hurricane is tracking through the Gulf of Mexico and appears to be headed right for Western North Carolina. Local officials aren’t taking any chances.

To the Editor:

The following comments relate to the ongoing discussion about changing the Macon County floodplain ordinance to allow fill to be added. The answer to the added fill question should be a resounding “no” for reasons that I will cite below. 

After what Haywood County has been through does anyone want to think about the hurricane season from June 1 to November 30? After watching my office being destroyed in 2004 along with most of Downtown Canton, I sure don’t want to be reminded. But we need to be.

WNC Climate Action Coalition’s screening of David Weintraub’s new documentary “Guardians of our Troubled Waters” is both a history lesson and a call to action. 

The film, made in collaboration with the Wilma Dykeman Legacy Foundation, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Conserving Carolina, Mountain True, Clean Water Expected in East Tennessee, Friends of the Everglades and Haywood Waterways Association, will be aired at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Lake Junaluska Assembly Terrace Auditorium at 689 North Lakeshore Drive. There will be a panel discussion following the film. The panel will include filmmaker David Weintraub, Eric Romaniszyn of Haywood Waterways, Callie Moore of Mountain True and more.