I was in Knoxville when they did this visiting a sick relative, it felt awful seeing in real time.

Also, LMAO at "rid the area of kudzu".

Riiiiiiiiiight

Hey everyone! My name is Elijah Skipper. I'm an investigative reporter with News 13 in western North Carolina.

I wanted to share a story I've been working on and hear from people elsewhere in Appalachia who are having these conversations.

Our station covered noise complaints at Facebook's Forest City data center in 2013. With so much attention on new data centers now, I kept wondering what happened to the people who were already living beside one.

I tracked down Jim Bennett and Tommy Doggett, two neighbors from that original report. We watched the old video together, then went back into Jim's backyard, which backs up to the site.

They say it's quiet now. Both believe the sound-absorbing material and trees helped. They also give the original reporting a lot of credit for getting Facebook to listen.

But it wasn't a quick fix. Neighbors were still complaining about noise in our 2015 follow-up.

I went back through the coverage and records, spoke with the Data Center Coalition and followed up with Meta about what changed and whether Forest City shaped its approach elsewhere. At publication, we hadn't obtained a current testing schedule or written agreement showing what hours apply now.

I think hearing from people who have lived through this adds something to the debate. If a project is being discussed near you, what questions are residents asking? And what do you wish your community had settled before construction started?

I'm happy to answer questions about the reporting too.