Connection is our primary survival response, especially during threats like hurricanes. The podcast "Flood Zone," produced and hosted by Akshay Gokul, explores the role of community in building resilience in coastal Carolina communities. The ep...

Want to vote early in coastal North Carolina? Here's how.¿Quieres votar temprano en la costa de Carolina del Norte? Escucha este anuncio. 

Ethel Hill is a lifetime member of St. Stephen’s AME Zion Church in Morehead City. "I grew up in Morehead City, went away, came back, and I'm still here. So, I love my church.” When Hurricane Florence approached the coast in 2018, Ethel and sev...

Ellis Jones had a good job and good life in Raleigh in 1974. He didn’t want to move to the coast. Reluctantly, he drove into Morehead City on a highway 70 shadowed by trees “shaped by nature, and the hurricanes, and the salt… and the fellowship...

The speed of hurricane recovery efforts is pernicious, says Matthew Reddick of Washington, NC. If he had one word to describe how hurricane recovery functioned in his hometown – he would choose ‘slow.’ “Slow to react, slow to get something done...

Angela Lewis is the first lady to Spring Garden Missionary Baptist Church in Washington, NC. She speaks to how people would be surprised to know that locals in Washington are not just still recovering from Hurricane Florence in 2018 – many are ...

It’s been nearly two years since Hurricane Florence’s winds devastated homes in North River, a small coastal community in Carteret County, NC. But Yvonne Pittaway still isn’t home.  “Two rooms – if I can get two rooms repaired, I’m going b...

"I think the shrimp are confused just as much as the people are." Melvin Dunn is a shrimper from North River– a small, coastal community in Carteret County, NC. His father was a commercial fisherman, and his father before him. But climate chang...

Dallas White-Wells can remember when the young people in Morehead City always had something to do. “Now it’s mostly for retirees and beach people.” White-Wells was born on Bay Street in Morehead City, NC. She lived in this almost entirely Afric...

“I’m not against integration, but I think people are being cheated out of their homes.” Her mother’s home was condemned. Then her uncle’s. Ophelia Chambers’ family homestead has been in the same location off of Bridges Street for three generati...

Willie Johnson has been driving 30 minutes from his hometown in New Bern, NC to the more rural area of Trenton, NC for nine years. His congregation is there – in a church located within ‘the bowl’ of Back Street. Many of his parishioners have w...

“I can only imagine what my parents had to go through for that land.” Gwendolyn Brown grew up in Back Street, a long-time African American community in Trenton, NC. When you enter the neighborhood, you pull off of ‘Backstreet Road’, go down a g...

Beverly Johnson's family bought land by the river in Trenton, NC early in the 20th century. Land ownership options then were limited for African Americans families. Inheriting land in a flood zone was not Johnson's choice, but she does see many...

Helen Barrett from Episode 3 shares a poem she wrote about sharing a birthday with Hurricane Florence. Two years since her house flooded with three feet of water, Barrett is still not in her home.Flood Zone is a special investigation re...

Helen Barrett drove school buses in New Bern, NC for 25 years. In early adulthood, she saw the fire of 1922 change the landscape of her city – pushing African Americans from downtown. Now she's seeing the same zoning patterns in the wake of Hur...

Eric Brown is from Back Street, a once thriving African American community named for being the opposite to downtown in Trenton, NC. Back Street has nearly been wiped out from repeated hurricane flooding. Brown built a second home to run from th...

Fanny Irving has lived in Trenton all of her life. She lives in the home that from 1971 - 1975 she built with her late husband. First Floyd, and now Florence, have taken that home from her. Flood Zone is a special investigation rep...