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Hurricane Helene – Part 2 with NC Christian Broadcaster John Owens

John Owens, an alum of the Family Life Ministries radio staff, now leads the Christian broadcasting outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelical Association, sending radio broadcasts into a wide area of the region devastated by Hurricane Helene.

When our Greg Gillispie spoke with him a week ago — just days after the monsoon-like rains washed away buildings, roads and even entire communities — he said it is a challenge to get accurate information. In this second half of that interview, the lack of communication and the uncertainty of some social media posts and official announcements made it hard to find trustworthy news and lifesaving information.

That dilemma faced by his radio staff in the immediate aftermath, and by people throughout the multi-state hurricane damage zone since then, has become a forerunner of this week’s back-and-forth on who is giving accurate information, from state and Federal agencies, to local emergency managers, to eyewitnesses watching their real-world situations and hoping for help.

This podcast includes John Owen’s observations and first-person stories from western North Carolina:

• The challenges of getting and confirming information when cell towers and internet service are out, roads and bridges have disappeared, and entire mountain communities are isolated
• The ways help arrived, from packs of donkeys to private helicopters
• The value of radio as a primary information source in such emergencies
• The value of Christian broadcasting in particular, to bring hope and reliable information to people with true human needs — practical, physical and spiritual.

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Part 1 of this conversation aired October 1 on Family Life.

Listen for that first half on our podcast version, available from www.FamilyLife.org/newspodcasts or by clicking the RADAR MAP below.

Hurricane Helene – One Christian Broadcaster’s Stories – 10/01/24

If you want to find out more — or feel called to help, pray or donate:

• FamilyLife.org/relief
• Over 1,000 volunteers gathered in the small NC town of Swannanoa to begin the recovery efforts, just days after the flooding began to subside
• Video of a college football team which met Black Hawk helicopters to load emergency supplies
• SamaritansPurse.org is seeking resources and volunteers to help in states throughout the southeastern U.S.
• Public information — and the Christ-centered hope — shared by the BGEA’s radio ministry: The Light FM