News from rural America.

Hurricane Helene has some rural North Carolina towns worried larger communities might get more attention, mixed feelings about ranked choice voting on the Oregon ballot next month, and New York farmers earn money feeding school kids.

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For the "Daily Yonder" and Public News Service, this is the news from rural America.

As the Southeast cleans up after late-season hurricanes, some small communities fear being forgotten.

Julia Tilton has more.

In Western North Carolina, thousands of local, state, and federal personnel are on the ground after Hurricane Helene tore through at the end of last month.

"Daily Yonder" reporter Sarah Mallott lives there and says one town in her county got two feet of rain.

Spruce Pine got hit really bad.

The entire downtown was totally underwater.

A historic walking bridge got swept away.

As recovery gets going, Mallott said towns like Spruce Pine fear being left behind by better-known tourism centers like Asheville.

People are worried that towns like Spruce Pine or Marshall might be forgotten in the national coverage because they're smaller and because there's not as heavy of a tourism industry there.

As of October 9th, hundreds of roads remain closed.

North Carolina officials warn that travel remains dangerous, with many primary routes between towns unusable.

The current death toll for Hurricane Helene is over 230 people.

I'm Julia Tilton.

Next month, five states, including Oregon, will decide if ranked-choice voting should replace the winner-take-all system.

If approved, voters would choose their top favorites rather than casting one vote, meaning everyone's second preference also could advance.

Blair Boebier helped convince voters in Benton County, Oregon, to adopt the system in 2016.

It creates a more reflective and responsive democracy, and it results in better representation.

Not everyone's a fan.

Some rural election officials worry it could confuse voters, open the system to charges of election fraud, and cost the counties more than they can afford.

Steve Dennison is the clerk of Oregon's Deschutes County.

There are going to be other services that counties won't be able to provide because they're footing the bill for this additional cost for something that doesn't necessarily improve the process overall.

New York farmers are earning more through a program that lets local schools buy their food.

Districts statewide have gotten funding from the USDA's Local Food for Schools program.

The agency's Jenny Lester-Moffitt says it's a reliable way to support growers.

When farmers can sell locally, direct to their community, selling direct to their schools, more of the food dollar comes back to their farm.

Despite its benefits, Moffitt notes barriers, especially for small producers who might only have a single product to sell or limited time for outreach to new customers.

Farmers are often very busy farming and harvesting and don't have a lot of time to be able to make all those different phone calls and deliver products.

October is National Farm to School Month, celebrating connections between schools, food, and local farmers.

For the "Daily Yonder" and Public News Service, I'm Roz Brown.

For more rural stories, visit dailyyonder.com.

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