Through Discord, The WNC Helene Recovery Community seeks to help Asheville and beyond

Alaska agencies are coordinating landslide monitoring through multi-agency programs, tribal partnerships, and citizen science apps, which has successfully prevented infrastructure damage (like the $25 million Dalton Highway rerouting that avoided landslide destruction) but faces limitations from funding uncertainty and the vast geographic scale requiring public education as the primary protective measure.

The residents of Etteln, Germany responded to rural decline and digital exclusion by organizing grassroots collective action—including volunteer-led fiber-optic installation and community-driven digital innovations—which reversed population loss, doubled school enrollment, earned global recognition as the world's smartest city, and created a replicable model now used by 500+ cities worldwide.

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) trains local communities to create and use open-source maps with low-cost tools like drones and mobile apps, enabling them to prepare for and respond to climate disasters. Firefighters used the maps to prevent casualties during a 2021 wildfire in Argentina, and in Kenya maps were used to secure World Bank funding for flood infrastructure improvements.

Alaska has deployed a state-of-the-art, multi-agency monitoring system at Barry Arm featuring seismic stations, radar, and tidal gauges that can successfully predict tsunami risks after one year of data collection. Working with community businesses allowed the system to adapt operations and demonstrate how real-time landslide detection can provide crucial location data within minutes of an event.

After DePaul University revoked a student organization’s status and ability to distribute sexual health materials on campus, the group, known as the “Womb Service,” began to provide free materials such as condoms, emergency contraception, and pregnancy tests at designated locations on public property near the university. Any student can confidentially request a delivery using an online form, and the group says it gets as many as 25 orders per week.

CleanAIRE NC, an organization that trains residents to collect and share air quality data, uses AirKeeper Dashboard—an interactive mapping tool that displays real-time data from sensors across the state—to help North Carolina communities track and understand local air pollution and advocate for cleaner, healthier air.

Community-led urban farms in Jakarta empower residents to transform underused city spaces like alleyways and campus grounds into productive local food sources. These initiatives often blend traditional gardening with community organizing, educational outreach, and sometimes smart technology or agricultural research to improve food access, enhance green space, and foster local resilience.

In 2023, Hot Springs received a microgrid of solar panels and lithium-ion batteries, which can provide 100 percent of the town’s peak load and up to six hours of backup power. In Hurricane Helene's wake, the microgrid operated continuously for 143.5 hours during a blackout.

Aflorar Herb Collective provides herbs to community members in the wake of Hurricane Helene and intense recovery efforts to address high levels of stress, anxiety, insomnia and other mental health struggles. The group uses locally grown herbs and traditional practices to make teas, salves, soaks and other remedies to calm the parasympathetic nervous system and provide a moment of much-needed self-care and rest to those impacted by the storm.

In the wake of Hurricane Helene and Milton, mutual aid groups across the country are emerging to get essential supplies to thousands of people in isolated communities and working to combat misinformation and government mistrust surrounding climate change. Because mutual aid groups aren’t bound to the bureaucracy of government organizations, they’re able to act quickly and connect with community members on a deeper level.