Resilience, perseverance and community were on display in Asheville Watchdog’s photos • Asheville Watchdog

On By Littum

Editor’s note: As 2024 draws to a close, the Asheville Watchdog staff takes you back inside their most memorable stories and news events of the year.

So much of the human spirit in Appalachia is centered on community. For hundreds of years we have supported each other in good times and bad. And in 2024 there was plenty of bad.

Our world was turned upside down in September when Tropical Storm Helene caused such unimaginable loss of life and destruction. Even now, almost three months after the flood receded, we are left with so many questions. How are we going to rebuild? Will there be more frequent, more intense storms in our future? How can we help those who have lost so much?

As photographer accompanying Asheville Watchdog’s journalists in the chronicle of Helene’s aftermath, I have seen people at their best and worst. I have witnessed tremendous resilience, tenacity and sense of community as fellow residents deal with the loss of loved ones, their homes, their businesses.

Truth be told, these forces were present throughout the year as our region dealt with serious issues, from the federal sanctions against Mission Hospital to a presidential election unlike any in modern history.

As the year ends, I’m sharing a collection of Watchdog images I captured in 2024 that I believe highlight the challenges we’ve faced and our hopes for the future. Some capture the biggest news events of the year, and others depict the subjects of the stories our reporters produced.

They include Missy Harris, a former mission hospital chaplain who described working under HCA leadership as staggering “moral damage”; a woman known as patient no. 12, whose delay in treatment at the hospital was chronicled by federal investigators; and DeWayne Barton, whose historically black community is in the crosshairs of the Interstate 26 Connector project.

Light and composition drove many of my choices, such as a photo I took of PEAK Academy Executive Director Kidada Wynn, whose school faced a federal civil rights complaint, as John Boyle wrote in January.

Another photo shows Compass Point resident Norma Peeler, who featured prominently in a column John wrote about the first year of the permanent supportive housing facility. I chose one image because it was both whimsical and illustrative of a serious demographic challenge facing our area. And a photo that accompanied a story looking at Buncombe’s recycling challenges stands as a sobering reminder of how much waste we generate.

This collection illustrates the tapestry of our society, the year none of us will forget and the commitment The watchdog must bring you stories that matter.

Patient #12’s story was one of at least 15 detailed in a 384-page report by the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which in February put the HCA Healthcare-owned mission in immediate jeopardy.
A truck prepares to dump trash at Curbside Management, also known as Curbie, the county’s main recycling center. Buncombe County residents use a staggering number of single-use plastic bags each year — 130 million by one estimate — and despite being recyclable, nearly all of them end up in landfills.
Burton Street, a historically African-American community, is in the crosshairs of the I-26 Connector project. “This project is huge and it’s been going on for so long that people still don’t believe it’s going to happen,” said DeWayne Barton, president of the Burton Street Community Association.
A Donald Trump supporter captures the presidential candidate’s August rally in Asheville on his cell phone.
Raincoats and hats abounded at Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s rally at the Salvage Station in September. Less than two weeks later, Helene destroyed the venue.
PEAK Academy Executive Director Kidada Wynn greets students waiting to enter the school lunchroom.
Missy Harris, an associate pastor of the Circle of Mercy congregation in East Asheville, served as a part-time pastor at Mission Hospital from 2018 to 2023.
Compass Point resident Norma Peeler became homeless in 2020, she said, after a 30-year battle with a crack addiction. She started smoking crack to dull an unbearable pain – the murder of her 2-year-old daughter by her live-in boyfriend.
Tap dancers Gail Hensley, 75; Susan Richardson, 62; and Lynne Gaudette, 70, practices at the Harvest House Community Center. The trio is part of the Silver Tsunami – the growing number of seniors living in Buncombe County.
Weeks before Helene, former Asheville City Councilman Marc Hunt, a river advocate and volunteer consultant on Woodfin’s kayak wave project, gave The Watchdog a tour of floodplains near the French Broad and Swanannoa rivers. The Watchdog published a story about the growing threat of flooding in Asheville on Sept. 17, 10 days before the storm.
A sign along a creek in Biltmore Village warns of the possibility of flooding. The neighborhood was one of the hardest hit by Helene.
Wes Barnett walks among the rubble in Swannanoa near where he found his neighbor, James Dockery. Dockery and his wife, Judy, were two of the 43 people killed in Buncombe County by Helene.
Bee Tree Christian Church, founded in 1872, was severely damaged by Helene.
Sarah Moore sits where she found her father, Timothy Moore, fatally pinned under a tree outside the Woodfin home they shared. “I can’t get that image out of my mind,” Moore said.
Jesse Craig stands next to the remains of his parents’ home in Fairview. They were two of the 11 members of the Craig family killed by the landslide.
An American flag discovered among the rubble stands where landslides destroyed Craigtown.

Photographer Starr Sariego’s images have been featured in exhibitions in Asheville and across the country. Contact her at [email protected]. To show your support for this vital public service, go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.