Nov Program Meeting-Life in the Floodplain: Post-Helene Resilience + Reality

Date and Time:
Wed, Nov 5, 2025; 7:00 PM (Eastern)

Organized By: WNC Group

Please join Lisa Raleigh, RiverLink’s Executive Director, one-year post-Helene for an engaging discussion on the French Broad River watershed — from a flooding perspective and what that means for its future and ours including how we must lean in and "own" this reality. Lisa will encourage us to prepare to get wet and unpack the underlying reasons why, including the recurring patterns that have shaped a century of catastrophic floods and the widespread misunderstanding of the “100-year floodplain." The conversation will also explore the vital roles of our floodplains and riverbanks and why these natural systems are critical to the types of flooding outcomes we experience. Lisa will then speak about how we can build a more resilient French Broad River landscape by reducing urban pressures on our floodplains while still honoring property rights, capitalism, and human nature -- and the tremendous shared responsibility this represents. Finally, she’ll emphasize why restoring and protecting our rivers must remain central to our region’s ongoing recovery — as they are the economic, recreational, and ecological backbone of Western North Carolina.

Lisa Raleigh, PhD

Lisa brings to RiverLink a lifetime shaped by the West — a hydrologist by training and a passionate nonprofit leader by calling. For the past four years, she has been honored to carry forward RiverLink’s mission and the extraordinary dedication of its staff and Board to the French Broad River watershed and the communities along its banks, especially amid post-Helene recovery.

Signup Instructions: In person or by Zoom on the first Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. Contact Ken Brame at kenbrame10@gmail.com

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