September 22, 2026
SPINDALE, NC (WNCW) Two years after Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina, newly detailed accounts from the storm’s first hours show how close a Lake Lure dam came to failing and how completely Buncombe County’s 911 system broke down — details at the center of “Higher Ground”, a three-part WNCW special report marking the anniversary of the storm.
Part 1 focuses on the two communities’ first 24 hours: Buncombe County, where emergency officials had to warn a quarter million people their homes were no longer safe, and Lake Lure, an hour and a half away, where the dam holding back the…