(25 Sep 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++EDIT ENDS ON A SOUNDBITE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Woodfin, North Carolina – 10 September 2025
1. Wide of people cleaning French Broad River
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz McGuirl, Story collector, Mountain True:
"After Helene hit and the rivers rose, there were so many people in the community that became afraid of the river. They became fearful and felt like the river had betrayed them. I’m thankful I never felt that way toward the river. I knew it wasn’t the river’s fault that it rose, it just did what rivers do.”
ARCHIVE – ASSOCIATED PRESS
Asheville, North Carolina – 27 September 2024
3. Person filming swollen river engulfing trees
4. River rushing through city street
5. Truck submerged in water
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Woodfin, North Carolina – 10 September 2025
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz McGuirl, Story collector, Mountain True:
“So I felt kind of like it was my responsibility to get out here and not only do the thing that so many people are afraid to do, but also just a responsibility to help heal the places and spaces that have healed me throughout time.”
7. Tight of water in river
8. Various of McGuirl removing plastic pipe from river and depositing it on bank
9. McGuirl watches fish swim out of pipe
UPSOUND: Get it, yay! Aw!
10. Various of McGuirl carrying pipe and depositing on bank
UPSOUND: Yep, he was living in there, but now he’s going to be a lot happier.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz McGuirl, Story collector, MountainTrue:
“I lost my husband four years ago in a pretty traumatic way and I didn’t know what to do with myself after that, and so I just went to nature. It’s taken all four of those years to fully immerse myself in nature and start to feel like I have been healed quite a bit. Nature and the rivers have always been the place that I go to shut out all the noise.”
12. Various of McGuirl and teammate on canoe during cleanup
13. Various of people removing pipe from river
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz McGuirl, Story collector, MountainTrue:
“We got 10 million dollars from the state in order to set up these crews to work for 18 months. Which will give us a chance to make a very large dent in restoring and recovering these rivers out here."
15. Various of people lifting large pipe from river
16. Leslie Beninato directing the crew
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Leslie Beninato, Logistics manager, MountainTrue:
"Originally FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers came in. They were contracted to do big, large, extreme debris. And then we came in after them, noticing they had kind of left a little bit more trash in their wake and we’re coming in with that delicate touch leaving it better than we found it.”
18. Cleanup crew paddling in raft
19. Crew pulling up pipe from riverbed
20. Beninato gathering pipe on raft
UPSOUND: Got it
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Leslie Beninato, Logistics manager, MountainTrue:
“With a lot of this pipe that has come from a local corporation, they cleaned up their property, but technically by law, they do not have to clean this up."
22. Plastic pipe stacked in business parking lot
23. View of business next to the river
24. Pile of pipes on ground
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz McGuirl, Story collector, MountainTrue:
"It hurts my heart. It is sad.”
26. Moving shot looking into riverbed with pipes at the bottom
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Liz McGuirl, Story collector, MountainTrue:
++EDIT ENDS ON A SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
A catfish wriggles out of the broken length of PVC pipe as Liz McGuirl wrestles the debris from the rocky bottom of the French Broad River.
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