N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler announced that the Agricultural Disaster Crop Loss Program is open and accepting online applications through May 4 from farmers who suffered crop losses from Hurricane Helene, Tropical Storm Debby and drought and other weather-related conditions in 2024. 

To the Editor:

This morning I read an article in the New York Times titled “Musk Targeted FEMA. Storm-Battered Communities Are Paying a Price.” The article describes how the federal government has stopped making FEMA payments to states and non-profits and has given DOGE full system access to FEMA’s financial management system.

To the Editor:

Our EMS and fire departments, law-enforcement and many in serving military units have come to our region’s rescue. They  and caring ordinary neighbors who have put on their boots and gloves and helped so many people in desperate need are our heroes.

Hurricane Helene was and continues to be a traumatic event for our region, but even within the worst of it, there are stories of resilience and ingenuity in ways that many had to deal with making or getting meals while having no power or water for days.

To the Editor:

This letter is in response to LeRoy E. Cossette’s letter stating how bad a Harris presidency would be for the United States, dangerous even, since he (incorrectly) states she is a Marxist socialist. 

AGAIN. For the second time in three years, Haywood County, the highest east of the Mississippi River, experienced devastating flooding from a tropical weather system that reached mountainous Southern Appalachia’s narrow, rocky canyons and broad, lush river valleys — wiping out whole towns, inundating normally impregnable areas and crippling the communications and transportation infrastructure that powers public safety, commerce and the dissemination of information. 

As state elected leaders toured areas of Haywood County decimated by deadly flooding that killed six people last week, local agencies were busy assessing damage and compiling reports in support of a federal disaster declaration that would bring badly needed resources. 

As The Smoky Mountain News went to print Tuesday, a potentially catastrophic storm was barreling down on the Carolinas, with North Carolina poised to bear the brunt of it. 

It was April 5, 1936, Palm Sunday, about nine o’clock in the evening. People were tidying up their kitchens, strolling home from church services, sitting in the local movie theaters, listening to their radios, talking to their neighbors. Just another ordinary spring evening. 

Close your eyes and imagine this: It’s another picture-perfect Western North Carolina Wednesday morning with Chamber of Commerce weather and nary a cloud in the sky.