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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Asheville Hockey League is converting the former Second Gear building into an outdoor youth skating rink. -
That progress includes more than $1 billion in allocations for road repairs.
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Around 75 people gathered at the Craven Street Bridge for a primal scream on Friday morning. Locals hope it can be a regular thing. -
One year after Helene, Asheville’s service industry contends with weaker tourism, fewer jobs and lingering storm trauma, all while trying to keep a happy face for customers. -
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Blue Ridge Public Radio is collaborating with AP, Honolulu Civil Beat, CalMatters, and Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico to examine how school communities are recovering from the disruption of natural disasters. -
What you need to know from the Sept. 16 Buncombe Board of Commissioners meeting. -
The community briefings aired twice-a-day in the immediate aftermath of the storm and streamed live on Blue Ridge Public Radio. -
The city announced a partnership with ATG Entertainment that will explore the path to a new facility. -
Emergency officials struggled to warn people about the danger of Hurricane Helene – moving ahead, they’re split on how to best keep people safe during future floods.
