No book review today. Instead, some words about the importance of words — yours.

If you’re reading these words and live in Western North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee, or parts of Georgia and South Carolina, then you survived the Great Flood of 2024.  

Jackson County was largely spared the damning effects of Hurricane Helene from which its neighbors to the east are still reeling. However, heavy rains and high winds have left thousands without power, water and telephone or internet service.  

Over the last couple of weeks, the drought has expanded in Western North Carolina, and it now covers all of Haywood, Swain, Jackson and Macon counties. There was widespread rain over the last week, but it remains to be seen whether that precipitation cut into the drought. 

Hello from Room 204 at The Pendry hotel in the Canyons Village of the Park City Mountain Resort in Utah. After a weekend of mostly sunny skies and lush high desert mountains surrounding this bucolic property, it’s currently 65 degrees with a vicious thunderstorm on this otherwise lazy Sunday evening. 

North Carolina is free from extreme drought in the latest advisory issued by the North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council (DMAC) on Thursday.

The North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council (DMAC) has classified all or part of 99 counties as in moderate drought or abnormally dry, with high temperatures and low precipitation driving the rapid deterioration of conditions across the state. 

Heavy rains last week banished all but a spot of severe drought from the mountain region, with more relief likely to be reflected in next week’s drought map from the N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council. 

Allens Creek Park in Waynesville is closed until further notice while county crews clean it up following last week’s heavy rains and wind. 

For the first time since Oct. 23, Western North Carolina is free of active wildfires. 

Drought conditions are the best they’ve been in a month, according to the latest map from the Drought Management Advisory Council, with recent rains wiping out the extreme drought conditions that had affected 13 western counties.