Community Resilience Forum: 4 months after the storm

This story was submitted on February 12, 2025 by Laura England

Title: Community Resilience Forum: 4 months after the storm
Originators: photographs by App State photographer Kyla Willoughby
Date: January 27, 2025
Description: Four months after Hurricane Helene on January 27, 2025, App State's Pathways to Resilience initiative held a Community Resilience Forum where ~275 people learned from community leaders (speakers listed below) about disaster response and resilience from the perspectives of working on key areas of well-being: food, water, housing and the local economy. We also watched a short film by Beth Davison documenting the incredible post-Helene recovery work led and organized via River Girl Fishing Company (owned by Kelly McCoy and Renata Dos Santos) in Todd.

FOOD: Liz Whiteman, Executive Director, Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture
WATER: Andy Hill, High Country Regional Director and Watauga Riverkeeper, Mountain True
HOUSING: Kellie Reed Ashcraft, Executive Director, Watauga Housing Council
ECONOMY: David Jackson, President/CEO, Boone Area Chamber of Commerce
Place: 263 Locust St. Boone, NC 28608