Editor in North Carolina had to balance his storm-reporting duties with his other roles as a firefighter and EMT

Moss Brennan

Moss Brennan is editor of the Watauga Democrat newspaper in western North Carolina, and he also is a volunteer firefighter and an emergency medical technician. As Lauren Watson reports for Columbia Journalism Review, Brennan had to balance those roles as the flooding and winds from Helene led to extensive damage and hundreds of emergency rescues where he lives and works. 

In addition to his job at the Watauga newspaper, Brennan also is executive editor of Mountain Times Publications, which serves three rural counties in the region. 

As Watson reported, "In the days leading up to the arrival of Hurricane Helene last week, he was preparing for what he imagined would be some flooding and structural damage — possibly a handful of dramatic rescue missions — to report on. But he never anticipated the breadth of devastation and destruction that Helene would ultimately bring."

When the storm hit, Brennan first focused on his emergency services duties. “'If there is somebody that is hurt or their life is on the line, that comes first, before the story,'' he told Watson. "Balancing the two roles can be tricky ('I’m human, so it’s not perfect'), but Brennan also recognizes the responsibility that comes with his newspaper job."

Brennan told Watson: "I oversee the papers in Ashe, Watauga, and Avery counties, and during the week, we were the only outlet able to offer regular updates and reports to those communities."

As he delivered papers to people throughout the devastated communities, he found them welcoming of trustworthy information the newspapers provided. "I met people who told me that this was the first news they had gotten since last week.

"The Watauga County emergency services also asked for a bunch of papers so that their own damage assessment teams could give them out to people who lost everything and had no information about what was going on."