To understand the impact that radio has in disasters, sometimes it is best to speak with someone entirely outside of the industry. Denise Potter lives 30 minutes south of Asheville, in Hendersonville, N.C. After nearly a week without reliable cell service, Denise spoke with Streamline Publishing’s Radio Ink to share her experience during and after Hurricane Helene — and the difference radio is making in the region.
Denise Potter: Everything started on Friday morning, probably about 5am. My husband works for Advent Health Hospital, so he had to leave at the start of the storm. I was in the house here by myself, and for several hours, we were just getting pounded, I mean pounded. We had a lot of trees that fell behind my house, up against the house. I wasn’t sure really where to stand. I thought that one was going to go right through the roof or through a window.
We lost power very early in the storm and were in the dark immediately. Then our cell coverage started to just go out as my sons and family were trying to get hold of me. My husband was trying to get a hold of me from the hospital and we were yelling over the phone, but the calls were dropping and it was just frightening.
Then it stopped. It’s simply a miracle – a true miracle – that the trees did not come through my windows or house. I discovered a lot of our neighbors in this development have trees on their houses and cars and power lines. Power lines are down everywhere.
The scariest thing, too, was I could not get in touch with my husband. I was getting some messages from family members who got through to him. He was trying to get back to me, but flooding was everywhere and he couldn’t get home. In fact, none of the hospital employees could get home and people couldn’t get to the hospital. Cars were simply floating on I-26. It was just horrific.
For over 24 hours, I was here alone and worried about him and the people at the hospital and our neighbors and everything. It was so scary. We were cut off from the world, literally.
My husband finally got home the next day. We were both in tears because we were in disbelief at what was happening. We knew then, on Saturday that it was going to be a very long time before we would ever have power. We are on day seven now with no power. You can’t believe what it’s like being cut off from the world.
But one of my neighbors a couple of days ago said, ‘Hey, I have a radio. It’s battery-operated and I’m using it to hear what’s going on.’ I was like, ‘Oh, I have an old-school clock radio that I haven’t used in forever.’ And I got that out. And all of a sudden I started hearing the iHeartRadio broadcasts [from WWNC-AM 570, airing across the company’s cluster of FM radio stations]. I have to tell you, these guys are just true heroes. They have been on the air since day one, 24/7. Some of them haven’t taken any breaks.”
I’m just getting teary now because hearing them and hearing people calling in, asking for help, asking to find loved ones that they haven’t heard from in days… The stories were just heartbreaking and yet the DJs kept saying, “We’re going to get you help,” you know, “We’re going to help you.” They take the information, to get it to whoever can go – the relief, the Red Cross, people in the community – to try to find these people.
In Asheville, they’re trying to get water to people who haven’t had running water all week to even flush toilets or take a shower. They’re talking to people whose businesses are ruined or they’re stuck in an apartment building on the third floor and they can’t get out.
These guys on the radio, on the iHeart radio stations out of Asheville, have been amazing. Every day I just cry listening to these stories, but I cannot tell you how much they have helped so many people. And they’ve been in tears too. They tell people “I love you.” They don’t even know them and they’re telling them “I love you.” I know that means a lot to people who have lost everything, even though they’re perfect strangers.
It’s been a godsend for so many people across Western North Carolina to hear their voices, to hear the press conferences from Governor Cooper and hearing where there’s help and hearing that help is coming from FEMA or where churches are setting up where people can go get food or take a shower or anything.
People would never know this. They would never know this information if it wasn’t for these guys and gals on the radio. So I can’t say enough about radio for being there for everyone. I can’t I just can’t even describe it. I don’t know what people would have done without this radio. I really don’t.
Streamline Publishing: Some automakers and tech groups are trying to take AM radios out of automobiles saying that in the event of an emergency, people will be able to count on their phones to give them information. From what you’ve been through, what can you speak to this?
Denise Potter: Frankly, I think a lot of people here, and especially in Asheville, have felt that the world is not really aware of the devastation here. If you just live a regular life and none of this is affecting you, sure, those people probably think it’s just fine to discontinue radio. Until you experience something like this and you’re actually here and boots on the ground … I mean, I too personally never expected anything like this to happen, but wait till it happens to you and you don’t have the AM radio.
I had to walk to the top of our development, because we’re in the mountains, to try to get any type of a signal to text my family to tell them we were okay. We’ve got that whole neighborhood of people up on the top of the hill trying to get to their loved ones to say they’re okay. It was all so spotty. It still is. And yet the radio was going.
The guys and gals on the radio have been nonstop since day one with information and that hasn’t been the case for anything else. Even our hospitals were cut off by landline, but the radio was working.
I know at one point the station had said they had generators to somehow run the broadcast and they were running out of fuel. Heroes came from God knows where out of the state and brought them fuel to keep the station on the air because everybody’s freaking out, you know, are they gonna go off? I was praying, “Please don’t go off the air.”
I can’t say enough. Radio is so critically important to people everywhere. I think sometimes we forget because you can flip on a TV or the internet. But when that’s not available, what would you do without radio? I honestly don’t know. So I’m very, very thankful. God bless radio.
Help ensure that Americans retain access to a vital lifeline in times of crisis as automakers try to remove it. Contact your members of Congress by texting AM to 52886, urging them to support legislation that ensures AM radio remains in cars.
If your station is not running the NAB PSAs asking your listeners to reach out to their representatives, get them here.
