Mountain Strong: a short documentary about Hurricane Helene

Mountain Strong is a short documentary about Hurricane Helene, which ravaged Western North Carolina and much of the Southeast. The film focuses on the small mountain community of Boone, North Carolina, in Watauga County. I started working on this project the day after the rain subsided. Alongside my co-workers at The Appalachian, the student newspaper at my University, Appalachian State, we spent days traveling around our county trying to tell the story of the storm. We saw whole roads and homes destroyed, neighborhoods completely isolated, river beds twice the size they used to be, and debris and rubbish strewn across our beautiful mountains. My best friend from Asheville and roommate in Boone lost his and his mother's home in Asheville because of the storm. Thankfully, his mother, 95-year-old grandmother, and four pets survived, but he lost everything else. All his childhood memories are gone. But the most emotional thing I felt when not only documenting but living through this storm was the amount of neighborly love we have in these mountain towns. Here in Appalachia, we help people, and we are kind to people. These values are instilled into our souls and are instilled into these mountains. And when the storm passed, these values shined through the rain. We didn't wait around for help, and we didn't complain. We got up, and we started rebuilding our roads, homes, neighborhoods, and communities. The resilience of the Appalachian people is not something to be messed with, and a little bit of rain… or a lot of it, will not break us. I hope you like the movie. Thanks to Jared Kay for the drone and other footage. It was a huge help. Music: Wild Horses by The Rolling Stones