AccuWeather freelance correspondent and North Carolina resident Andy Coates was live on the AccuWeather Network to tell his story on covering 2024's Hurricane Helene.

Asheville

Andy Coates, a freelance videographer and correspondent for AccuWeather, recounted his experience covering Hurricane Helene, which initially made landfall in Florida with minimal damage in Tallahassee. However, Coates soon learned that his own community in western North Carolina had been severely affected by the storm. 

Unable to contact his family due to widespread power and cell service outages, Coates returned home to document the devastation and participate in recovery efforts. He described the emotional toll of witnessing familiar faces struggle with loss, while also using his skills to help inform and connect the community during the ongoing recovery process.

Living the story: Helene's impact in western NC

Joining us now is Andy Coates, an AccuWeather freelance videographer and correspondent for the past decade. Andy has covered hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and severe weather with us, but Hurricane Helene presented challenges unlike any he faced before. He covered landfall in Florida, then learned his community in western North Carolina was devastated. From documenting the disaster to helping neighbors rebuild, Andy has spent the last year telling the story of recovery and living it himself. Andy, you were on the ground for Helene's landfall, then moved to Keaton Beach the morning after. What stands out to you about those first hours covering the storm? We, Ali and I were in Tallahassee for the storm and I would have never imagined that night that it would cause the damage and be a part of my life for the next year. Of any storm I thought I would be interviewed with you guys talking a year anniversary with, it would not have been Helene that night in Tallahassee. All the meteor crews were there, it was a heavy wind and a lot of rain but not a lot of damage. We stayed up really late trying to get to, I mean there was a tree that went down late at night and hit a car in an apartment building and literally we were running out to anything like that even because there was so little damage in Tallahassee. And then at first daylight we go to Keaton Beach and literally they're trying to navigate, we're having to, one lane of the road's open and it's just covered in trees so we're trying our best to get to Keaton Beach and when you get there the damage was pretty severe. I mean it's a lot of people's second homes but they're just, most things were in the ocean and we just started interviewing people there but there's no cell phone service, there's no way, and I mean we literally left right away in the morning so there was no way to communicate with Accurate before we left. So I had no idea that of what was happening until we interviewed somebody there in Keaton Beach who told me, you know just in the conversation of what had happened to him and what he's going through and what had happened to his home, he asked me where I'm from and I say Asheville and it's always a nice usual icebreaker and people usually say, oh the Biltmore Estate, I love that and he looked at me and his whole face dropped and he's like, have you talked to anyone of home? And I'm like, I don't know what you mean. I texted my wife last night, everything's fine and she said it's getting a little crazy here but nothing, nothing out of control. So I had no way of communicating with anybody. I mean we had to leave Keaton Beach to even have cell phone service to call you guys to figure out how bad Asheville was and then obviously anytime I called you know my elderly parents or my wife, it just goes straight to voicemail. I mean no power and no cell phone service. Documented disasters is your job, something you've done for years but what was it like when your disaster was your own? We have about a minute left in the show. I understand but it's just, it's just such a gut punch. It's just so sad. I mean every day you see people who you see at the grocery every day and you know that everybody's been through something that they'll never forget and never fully recover from and yet what do you do? I mean I tried to just go out and do whatever I could of volunteering and doing a lot of trees on houses and stuff and so many bridges were out and so many people couldn't even get to their homes that I was just trying to do stories to just drone shots to just send in so that people could see what was happening here and get some help. But every day is a new challenge and every day you see something that's like oh my gosh and then you try to go away on a hike or something and you see where mudslides come down before and they've got the road open back up again but every day, every day it's something. Andy Kotak you were the freelance videographer and correspondent. Thanks for telling your story and we're so happy that everybody is finally beginning to recover. Thanks again Andy.

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