Note: These stories are a series accompanying the WRAL documentary “ Helene: What We Lost, What We Found, ” a powerful new investigative documentary examining the devastation and resilience that followed Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina. Watch the documentary beginning Thursday, Sept. 25, on WRAL-TV and everywhere you stream on WRAL.

For Erica Shanks, the Green River was, and is, home.

Other WRAL Top Stories

Shanks is Riverkeeper for the river, meaning she helps guard, protect and conserve one of North Carolina’s most popular, and heavily traveled aquatic playgrounds.

But she couldn’t protect it from what came with Hurricane Helene.

“You kind of felt like, again, like if a bomb went off or something,” said Shanks.

The storm tore through the Green River Valley, and the Gre

See Full Page