Laura Hackett
Helene Recovery ReporterLaura Hackett is an Edward R. Murrow award-winning reporter for Blue Ridge Public Radio. She joined the newsroom in 2023 as a Government Reporter and in 2025 moved into a new role as BPR's Helene Recovery Reporter. Before entering the world of public radio, she wrote for Mountain Xpress, AVLtoday and the Asheville Citizen-Times. She has a degree in creative writing from Florida Southern College, and in 2023, she completed the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY's Product Immersion for Small Newsrooms program.
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The rest of the money is for waterway debris removal, road repairs and utility projects in 11 WNC counties, including Yancey, Henderson and Jackson. -
The art is the latest addition to the Asheville Black Cultural and Heritage Trail. -
The funding will support emergency repairs at 207 sites across Buncombe, including farms, businesses, homes and public land. -
The two Asheville mayoral candidates largely agreed on housing and recovery priorities — but differed on how city government should operate. -
A group of 10 housing advocates say the city shouldn’t give Renew NC more money for housing — and that Asheville should rely on bond funding and nonprofit efforts to repair homes damaged by Hurricane Helene. -
Rivercane enthusiasts hope this native bamboo can help to heal old harms to land and people – and strengthen the riverbank against the next flood. -
Asheville is pursuing several costly infrastructure upgrades, including a new water mainline at North Fork Reservoir and two pre-treatment plants. -
The agency approved $59 million in new funding for buyouts statewide. -
The reallocation would take months but could fund the repair of more than 50 homes that belong to some of the city’s most vulnerable homeowners. -
BPR recently published an investigation showing the city of Asheville set aside just $3M for Helene home repair, mistakenly believing the state would cover the majority of the cost. Readers had questions. We sat down with our reporters to learn more.
