One year after Hurricane Helene: Lessons in resilience, recovery, and renewal

One year after Hurricane Helene: Lessons in resilience, recovery, and renewal 
Hospice & Palliative Care Today; Joy Berger and Cordt Kassner with Vern Grindstaff, Millicent Burke-Sinclair, and Chris Comeaux; 9/26/25 
At this time last year, Hospice & Palliative Care Today brought you a series of articles reporting on the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene across the Southeast, focusing on hospices in the North Carolina mountains. We remain deeply grateful for the many ways you—our readers and colleagues—rallied in support of those hospice organizations and their communities during their time of urgent need. This Saturday, September 27, 2025, marks the one-year anniversary of that epic disaster. To reflect on what has been learned and how recovery has unfolded, Vern Grindstaff (CEO of Compassionate Care WNC, Burnsville, NC), Millicent Burke-Sinclair (President and CEO of Four Seasons, Flat Rock, NC), and Chris Comeaux (President and CEO of Teleios Collaborative Network, Flat Rock, NC) gathered in conversation with Cordt Kassner (publisher) and Joy Berger (editor-in-chief). The insights that follow honor the hospice employees who persevered to provide urgent patient care. We celebrate their spirit of compassionate community and courageous problem-solving from the onset one year ago through ongoing recovery.