The devastation of Hurricane Helene
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2024
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
Across the southeastern United States, Hurricane Helene destroyed houses, swept up cars and overflowed riverbanks. Now millions of people are without power and clean drinking water; more than 100 people are dead.
“It's not really an overstatement to say there are towns that were there and are basically not there anymore,” environment and climate reporter Brady Dennis said. He’s been reporting from North Carolina, where many communities were not prepared for the disaster. On today’s show, Dennis describes the widespread destruction and relief efforts to host Elahe Izadi.
Today’s show was produced by Elana Gordon, with help from Sabby Robinson. It was mixed by Sean Carter and edited by Reena Flores, with help from Ariel Plotnick. Thanks to Scott Dance, Paulina Firozi and Katie Zezima.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Could you just tell me your name and where you live and your age? |
| 0:06.0 | Yeah, my name's TJ Witt. |
| 0:08.0 | Four to three years old lived up on top of Beeking Mountain up there, |
| 0:12.0 | above Upper Village of Beeking Mountain up there, above Upper Village of Beecan. |
| 0:15.2 | This is post reporter Brady Dennis, |
| 0:17.3 | speaking to TJ Witt on Sunday. |
| 0:19.8 | They're outside a church in Swananoa, North Carolina. |
| 0:23.0 | They said you also lost a lot. |
| 0:25.0 | What happened to your place? |
| 0:26.0 | My whole house slid down the mountains. |
| 0:27.0 | About 60 feet. |
| 0:28.0 | With my whole family in it, but we made it up, like God's grace, |
| 0:30.0 | we made it out. |
| 0:31.0 | Witz house slid down a mountain in the western part of the state. |
| 0:35.0 | We're more fortunate than most here |
| 0:37.0 | because we were able to go back in, get our clothes, |
| 0:40.0 | get our personal belongings, |
| 0:41.0 | stuff that's most important to us, you know, |
| 0:43.0 | wedding Marines. And so you pictures, birth certificates, you know, |
| 0:47.1 | Social Security cards, just the things that's essential, you know, we grab those |
| 0:50.3 | and got out. But the house is gone. Okay. Nothing left. No, not no, no, no, we cover. Yeah. |
| 1:01.1 | Hurricane Helene made landfall last Thursday in Florida and it then moved north. |
... |
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