Last summer, my family and I spent two weeks in Western North Carolina—hiking up Chimney Rock to see the waterfalls, buying local honey at the Hendersonville farmers’ market, scoping out art galleries in Asheville, and dipping our toes in beautiful Lake Lure. So when we saw the utter devastation after Helene, our hearts broke—for the Carolinas, of course, but also for the fishing villages in Florida, the tiny mountain hamlets in Southwest Virginia, the valleys of East Tennessee, Georgia’s battered towns, and beyond. In the past year we’ve covered many of these spots in this travel newsletter. But the South is resilient, and even though the immediate crisis is still unfolding, I know there’s hope for the future. “The strength and personality of these communities were forged centuries ago, and those traits will serve us well on the path ahead,” writes biologist JJ Apodaca, who weathered the storm with his family in Asheville.
As I write this, our office lobby here in Charleston, South Carolina, is overflowing with donations from our community, awaiting their delivery tomorrow to folks in need. If you’d like to help from afar, we’ve gathered a list of local and regional organizations providing relief for those in Helene’s wake. We hope you’ll join us in supporting these cherished Southern towns, sharing their stories, and when they’re ready, returning to visit them. —Emily Daily, newsletter editor
