A complicated relief effort unfolds in North Carolina in the face of tough terrain, collapsed communications and a ticking clock
CNN
The beloved southern Appalachian terrain is now isolating remote enclaves as residents begin recovering from a storm that dumped as much as 30 inches of rain.
To Cory Vaillancourt, the only scene comparable to the one unfolding in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene is a war zone. Nearly two years ago, the Smoky Mountain News politics editor reported from a southern Ukrainian city shortly after its liberation from Russian control. “The conditions that I’m seeing here in western North Carolina are almost exactly the same, minus the gunfire and artillery shells,” he told CNN on Monday from the town hall in Waynesville, 30 miles west of the city of Asheville. “You have people who don’t have water, they don’t have medications, they don’t have personal hygiene products. “And,” he added, “they don’t have any way to get them.” Indeed, the idyll that made Asheville a regional tourist hub of artsy flair, bustling breweries and forested mountain majesty – nearly 300 miles from the Atlantic coast – today appears condemned after one of the deadliest hurricanes to strike the US mainland in the last 50 years. And now, it’s that beloved southern Appalachian terrain isolating the city and many even more remote neighboring enclaves as residents begin the long, hard work of recovering from a storm that dumped as much as 30 inches of rain in the region and left at least 140 dead across six states.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
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Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.
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As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.
The murder trial of Brian Walshe, who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife in 2023 continues. Follow for live updates.
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A new poll shows more than 70% of Republicans with Obamacare coverage don’t want their enhanced premium subsidies to expire.
A safety volunteer accused of fatally shooting a man taking part in a “No Kings” protest last June in Salt Lake City while firing at another man he believed to be a potential mass shooter has been charged with manslaughter, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
The specter of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown looms over the Somali diaspora in the Twin Cities – home to the nation’s largest Somali population.