By Catherine Komp, Engagement Director
In the early days of Helene, when we spent our nights in the dark and our days clearing debris, one of the only places to get news and information was BPR. With no cell or internet, community members pulled old radios out of storage and invited neighbors to gather around. Some transcribed what they heard on BPR on paper, then taped it to windows and utility polls for others to see. A local hamburger joint, Juicy Lucy’s, put BPR’s frequency on their marquee.
For weeks, BPR staff provided round the clock information on where to get water, food and other necessities. They alerted folks to the volunteer efforts, interviewed countless public officials, and made their way to some of the hardest hit communities in Fairview, Marshall and Barnardsville. Seven days a week, they aired the Buncombe County press briefings, which staff recapped afterwards to highlight key information. They added Spanish language briefings and news, and packaged overnight programming.
Along the way, they stayed flexible, constantly asking their audience to send in questions and launching new products to serve them.
“Sometimes when you’re making newsroom decisions or strategic decisions about audience distribution, you can let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” said BPR News Director Laura Lee. “The one freeing possibility of something that is this horrible and chaotic is that you can just go ahead and try something.”
As internet and cell came back, BPR’s Instagram audience swelled as they published not only visuals that helped us understand the extent of Helene, but also daily bilingual updates with need-to-know information on road closures, shelters, safety and more. The team also launched a live blog, an “After Helene” newsletter, a “Voices of Helene” podcast and a daily text message service.
“Everyone really went above and beyond while living in these challenging circumstances to also cover these circumstances and take care of each other while they were doing it,” said Lee. “The thing I’m most proud of is how the team came together to do this and how in tune they were and are and continue to be to what the community really needs. I don’t have to remind them to put that first. And I think that’s a really positive and valuable service to the community.”
As we wrap up 2024, we wanted to take some time with Laura Lee to learn about how she and her team approached North Carolina’s biggest story of the year and the lessons learned that other local news and info orgs can use to prepare their own teams for when a disaster strikes.
NC Local: To start out, could you share a bit about the early days of Helene? Did you have an emergency plan that you were able to pull out or did you have to come up with something completely new?
Laura Lee: Yes. I had an emergency plan and it was written primarily thinking about a shooting as a potential emergency because that’s the one with which I’m most familiar. It has some details about storm coverage because that’s another thing we frequently deal with. I would say it was minimally useful given the scale and scope of what Helene did. It’s good to have plans to have a framework, but you really have to fill in the details as you go. So it was a useful tool in terms of making sure everyone at the station was on the same page, but in terms of tactical direction for the team that was much more ad hoc, on the ground.
NC Local: Those early days, the impact on Western North Carolina was really severe, in terms of physical damage but also the whole communication system was down. How did you connect with your team and figure out if they were okay?
Laura Lee: So fortunately or unfortunately, I was actually on vacation the day the storm hit so I had internet access. The limitations obviously were on the Asheville side. Thankfully, the station was in a place where we got power back pretty quickly. We had a backup generator and we were able to get power and internet back much more quickly than other places in town. So, in terms of people that were here in the studio, there was good communication. They called me “the floating head” because I would just walk around with the laptop for the first day or two, my head on the constant Zoom.
The challenge was with the reporters out in the field. Gerard [Albert III] was down in the Brevard, Henderson area. We didn’t know where he was and had a very hard time getting in touch with him because cell service was down. He was finally able to borrow somebody’s satellite phone to text to say he was OK. That was probably one of the more nerve-racking parts of the whole experience. We also didn’t have contact with Lilly [Knoepp] out in the western part of the state for at least a day. She was able to get someone’s landline and call to let me know she was OK.
Then even as the days progressed and everybody was here, once you left the station, there was very little cell service elsewhere. So sending somebody out on assignment, I got pretty anxious. And I was much more insistent about reporters sharing locations or texting me at intervals.
NC Local: Having gone through a disaster where an entire region is cut off from internet or cell service, what do you suggest for other newsrooms so they’re prepared?
Laura Lee: The one that’s the obvious stand up for me is the text only website. People have to have some internet access, so it doesn’t work if you have zero. But if you have limited cell access, the ability to access a text only site was super super helpful for people and would be helpful in other storm scenarios. Also, having radios with the batteries.
In terms of a newsroom, I think it’s two parts. One is the logistics of how we’re getting the information out and the other is the analysis of what information people really need. I’ve talked about this before, but we’re in the business of very carefully crafted narrative storytelling for the most part. This was not that at all. This was reading off addresses of places where people can get water, places where people get their oxygen tanks refilled. So it was a mind shift as well in terms of the substantive content that we were putting out
NC Local: In the week following Helene, BPR was one of the only ways to get really vital information. And people were using you in really community-centered ways, gathering around a single radio in neighborhoods, putting your frequency on handmade signs, on business marquees. There was also so much information coming out every day. How did you prioritize and figure out what people needed most?
Laura Lee: It’s something I had a lot of internal conflict about because on one hand, you want to get out as much information as possible. But you have limitations about how much you can really vet it. I can’t drive to every single water distribution site. Then you have an influx of information from a whole bunch of non-governmental sources, so people saying “hey here’s the Google spreadsheet of missing people.” Well, that’s not vetted in any way or overseen by any particular organization.
Even something well intentioned, like a church doing a clothing distribution today at 2 o’clock. I had to make some tough choices about which of those things we were gonna publicize or put on the air because I wanted to make very sure that it was reliable. There wasn’t a lot of leeway for people to drive around. Gas wasn’t in short supply, but it was short in terms of accessibility with most only accepting cash and people not being able to get to gas stations because roads were closed. So it’s just thinking really hard about where we were sending people and wanting that information to be reliable in the immediate: this is where you’re gonna be able to go [to get resources].
We ended up really trying to gather a lot from emergency management services across the region, and really trying to sort of on the ground fact check some of it. I remember a person calling me from one of the oxygen places that was listed on the county site as a place to get oxygen. She was like “we don’t have it, please stop putting it out there.” So even with official sources, sometimes still having to do some of that vetting to make sure that we were giving people reliable information. We always have that responsibility, but it felt even more sort of weighty in these circumstances to make sure people are getting accurate information
NC Local: Let’s talk about the audience a bit. You really were covering Helene with the audience helping you out, encouraging and getting so many questions and helpful tips. How did you deal with that volume of people reaching out? And what role did the audience play in how your coverage changed and evolved?
Laura Lee: We did it with a lot of help from people jumping in to help us go through emails. Phone calls generate an email for me as well, so you have an overwhelming volume of things from people. I still probably have a bunch of unreturned emails in my inbox that give me anxiety.
One of the prominent examples is the Spanish language programming that we started, and that was in direct response to local officials wanting to get their information out in Spanish and seeing us as a vehicle for that distribution, asking “Hey, can you all do this in Spanish because we’re really trying to get to that population.” Also living and working in a community, you see on the ground what the needs are and what people are asking you, as a person. That informed and shaped some of how we reported.
So there’s the difficulty of the volume of information, but also the evolution of it. What’s true right now at the 10 o’clock county briefing may not be true by the 4 o’clock briefing so it’s not just checking something once, but constantly making sure that we were keeping those things up-to-date as much as we possibly could.
NC Local: From the get-go, you were also thinking really carefully and deliberately about how to take care of your team. Can you talk a little bit about that and what guidance you would share with other newsroom leaders?
Laura Lee: Newsrooms are just people and I think sometimes there’s a tendency to, especially in an emergency situation, kind of shut down on that front. It’s very easy to forget that we’re all humans experiencing the range of emotions and challenges in this situation as people. So I tried to just do a couple of little things. One was saying the obvious thing out loud, which is “Hey, you guys are amazing narrative storytellers, and we’re pressing pause on that very intentionally and that’s not the expectation now. The expectation now is being conduits of information.” So this sort of collective mindset shift.
On a more personal level—and I know the term self-care can be loaded—but in the morning meetings, I would say “This is a reminder that you’re supposed to do a self-care something today and if you want to share, share.” And then in the evening saying “Hi, did you do it? What did you do?” And sometimes it’s “I laid on the floor for five minutes” or “I had an extra Diet Coke.” They’re not these sort of extreme things but just a reminder.
And then, you can say this as much as you want, but it’s really hard to internalize that it is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Starting to look back at it now, we ran really really hard for the first 20 miles of the marathon and it made the last six really, really hard. We’re still in the six I guess. But just constantly reminding yourself and each other that this is a much longer term situation than it might feel like at that moment, and you’ve got to leave some gas in the tank for the future.
NC Local: You also talk about the importance of being flexible and not doing all of the things, but also not being afraid to try new things, even in a situation like this.
Laura Lee: Absolutely. I think about the Spanish programming. We had some grand plans that we were working off and trying to sort of plot them out. Then the need became really immediate so we just went with it even though we had not laid those plans out perfectly. With the Workshop’s help, we launched a texting service. We just thought this is truly meeting people where they are right now.
Sometimes when you’re making newsroom decisions or strategic decisions about audience distribution, you can let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The one freeing possibility of something that is this horrible and chaotic is that you can just go ahead and try something. So we ended up launching several things that I think in normal circumstances would’ve taken us much longer to roll out.
NC Local: Well, you and your team have been doing such incredible work, reaching people in so many different formats and places, and I know it’s made a big impact on the community here as we continue to recover from Helene. What are you most proud of from these last few months and the past year of accomplishments with the team?
Laura Lee: It’s strange to look back over the year because it feels like the year only started in late September when Helene happened. I’m proud of the way this team stepped up. This is a relatively new team, I’ve only been here two years. There’s some deep experience here and there’s some that are less experienced, but to a person everyone really went above and beyond while living in these challenging circumstances to also cover these circumstances and take care of each other while they were doing it. So the thing I’m most proud of is how the team came together to do this and how in tune they were and are and continue to be to what the community really needs. I don’t have to remind them to put that first. And I think that’s a really positive and valuable service to the community
NC Local: What did you learn about yourself from your experiences during Helene?
Laura Lee: I learned that you can always find more capacity. There were days where I thought I was totally spent and I could still find something else to give. I’ve sort of stretched in ways that I didn’t know were possible.
I’ve also learned that it’s easy for me to say to a team “it’s a marathon and not a sprint” then turn around and sprint myself, so I’ve also learned pacing for myself a little bit. Maybe some of that I learned the hard way.
Then the last thing would be, ask for help. We 1000% could not have done this without the help of the Workshop, and the incredible network of editors across the country who jumped in. This was not a BPR news team only situation, we really did lean on so many people. Sometimes it’s hard to ask for that help or to accept it, so that’s another thing I’ve learned.
NC Local: Any other things that stand out that would be helpful for other news leaders as they dust off their emergency plans and get ready for future scenarios?
Laura Lee: One of the biggest pieces of advice I have is to put everything on paper because your brain doesn’t operate in an emergency scenario the way that it does in the regular day-to-day. While I can rely on my mind to hold certain things in a normal situation, when you’re not in that situation it’s just so much better if you write it down. Not just for yourself but for the team so everybody has a centralized place that they can go. We had literally called it “the big doc” and we had contact information and the agenda for the day; really putting everything down so you have a plan in advance, but then know you’re going to develop this plan on paper as you go. I found that immensely helpful.
NC Local: So to wrap up, you’re a Swiftie. Are there any tracks that were the soundtrack for the last few months?
Laura Lee: Ohhh, that’s a great question. Well, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” has been in heavy rotation. She talks about touring and performing even when she felt pretty sad inside, so it’s kind of an anthem of pushing through, that certainly resonates.
Thank you to the entire BPR news team and behind-the-scenes staff for their tireless work, innovation and commitment to community service!
Learn more about BPR’s experiences covering Helene
➡️ NPR: Asheville reporter covers Helene’s impact in Spanish for Latino communities
➡️ WFDD: Blue Ridge Public Radio’s News Director talks covering Helene and the state of Asheville
➡️ Inside Appalachia: How A Western North Carolina Public Radio Station Covered Helene
➡️ Charlotte Observer: After Helene, Western NC NPR station did more than report news. It opened doors for others
Additional resources for disaster planning
🧰 Reporting a Disaster: Unfortunately, this is the second major flood disaster for BPR and Grist Reporter Katie Meyers, who put together this wonderful guide for journalists covering diasters where they live based on her experiences in Kentucky after the 2022 floods. I love this advice from Katie: “Don’t be afraid to put down your journalist hat and just help out. Muck out a house if you can. Deliver fire department spaghetti. Fold donated clothes. You’ll learn a lot. You’ll see your community in a new way. It’ll mess you up. It will also be beautiful and make you remember why you do what you do.”
🧰 Local News Go Bag Toolkit: For an RJI Fellowship, Kate Maxwell created “The Local News Go Bag” to provide information, tools, resources, and connection for local newsrooms and independent journalists covering emergencies and disasters in their communities.
🧰 Verifying digital content for emergency coverage: As we’ve seen in WNC, rumors and disinformation have spread throughout the disaster and first responders and news and information providers have had to use valuable resources trying to contain and stop them. The first edition of the Verification Handbook includes scenarios, tips and checklists, and a chapter on “Preparing for disaster coverage and verification tools.”
