Finding resilience in Libby and Fukushima

On the weekend of April 7th a group of reporters, photographers and videographers went up to Libby to discuss the asbestos disaster that forever changed the town.

We talked to a variety of people ranging from Gayla Benefield, the Libby native who pushed the exposure of the wrongs done in Libby and the testing done for the thousands of people affected by asbestos, to the EPA who are just starting to finish up cleaning and restoring properties that were harmed.

We talked to new residents, Dwight and Molly Morris about why they moved to Libby and the conversations people have when moving to a town where a damaging event like this has occurred. We spoke with Cabinet Mountain Brewery, a new business hoping to bring new life to Libby and what some think will be a model for the new kind of business Libby will see succeed after so many jobs were lost from mining.

This trip gave us a great sense of the resilience of people who have lost.Fukushima and Libby are thousands of miles apart but they both deal with restoration against negativity. These are towns that have hope for their future.