Asheville, North Carolina — As Florida grapples with destruction Since After Hurricane Milton, residents of Western North Carolina know this reality all too well. Helene roared across the mountains, leaving more than a million people in the disaster zone without water, electricity and spotty cell service.
But what they had was radio.
For days, WWNC host Mark Starling and producer Tank Spencer were a lifeline, serving as a proxy dispatch service to help coordinate welfare checks and connect stranded people with resources to proximity.
“We had no connection to the outside world except for our radio stations, and we were the only two here. So we kind of had a mission of, OK, well, we have to go with these people through the storm,” Starling said.
The Asheville AM radio station was inundated with phone calls, which meant dealing with the widest range of emotions imaginable. One of the callers was a man on the second floor of his home with his wife and grandchild, Starling said.
“Our entire basement is flooded. Our first floor was flooded to about four feet and we’re upstairs. We’re safe, but my Ram truck is underwater,” the caller said .
Starling told the man to keep the station’s number handy and hoped for the best.
But as Starling tearfully recalls, “All was not well.”
The caller, his wife and their 7-year-old grandson were all swept away, among at least 120 people killed by Helen in North Carolina.
“It was a tough question. It’s still a tough question. I hear his phone call in my head,” Starling said.
On the other end of the spectrum, there was an emotional on-air reunion between Starling and his wife, confirming that she was okay.
Since Helen struck, Starling and Spencer have been a beacon at the top of the radio tower for many people in the North Carolina mountains.
“One of the memorable phone calls we had, for me, was when a guy called. He said, ‘You know, today is the first day I’m going to check all my neighbors, and I didn’t do it.’ even ask who they voted for first,” Starling said.
Spencer added: “It’s the most authentic radio there’s ever been, and we connect with people in a way that most people never get to connect with their audience, because it This is our family.”
