Mountain businesses are seeking relief
Plus: Water starts to flow through Asheville pipes; Virginia reopens a 200-mile stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway; School leaders discuss how to reopen schools without drinkable water
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Good afternoon. Cristina Bolling here, filling in for Lindsey Banks.
It’s a crisp, sunny fall Saturday in Western North Carolina — the type of day small business owners in mountain towns typically celebrate. These are the weekends when tourism dollars flow the heaviest as visitors cruise the Blue Ridge Parkway to view changing leaves, pack apple orchards and enjoy meals and shopping in local stores and restaurants.
This fall is so different.
Friday marked two weeks since the devastating flooding began in Western North Carolina, and many local business owners are struggling to assess how they’ll pay for recovery. Some wonder when they’ll be able to reopen, and what their workforce will look like when they can.
Gov. Roy Cooper visited two Transylvania County businesses on Friday, including a fish camp restaurant in Pisgah Forest just north of Brevard that owners say will likely not open until the Christmas holidays. Cooper told people there that he wants to work with the state legislature and the U.S. Congress to come up with a grant program for small businesses to rebuild, according to The Transylvania Times.
Small businesses are “the backbone of the Western North Carolina economy,” Cooper said.
In some counties across the area, however, leaders are cautiously working to get the word out about businesses that are reopening and eager for patrons and visitors.
Haywood County, which borders Tennessee to the northwest, posted a list of open businesses on its Visit Haywood website, including whether each can accept credit cards.
The town of Blowing Rock announced on its Facebook page Thursday that businesses and restaurants “are open and ready to welcome you back into town” and that major routes into Blowing Rock are open and safe for tourists to travel, with some cautionary advice.
Events, in some cases, are coming back, too.
In the town of Maggie Valley (also in Haywood County), the annual October Arts & Crafts Festival is kicking back up next weekend at the town’s festival grounds.
The town is inviting visitors to return but is advising them to make hotel reservations before arriving because some are filled with emergency workers or displaced residents.
Checking around the region, here are some fresh updates today:
Water starting to flow: Water is now flowing through the City of Asheville's pipes for the first time in over two weeks, thanks to a crew from the City of Asheville's water department. The 36-inch bypass, which moves water from the North Fork reservoir, was successfully activated, enabling water to flow throughout the county and surrounding areas. However, a boil water notice is in effect, so bottled water must still be used for drinking, cooking and brushing teeth. (WLOS)
Large stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia reopens: The National Park Service opened 198 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia on Friday, from milepost 0 to milepost 198. It includes the 198 miles of the scenic byway from Shenandoah National Park south to Virginia Route 685. The entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina remains closed. (National Park Service)
School leaders grapple with plans to reopen: As leaders of the Asheville and Buncombe County school districts work on plans to reopen, they are considering installing large water tanks that were donated to the schools as a solution to the current lack of potable water on campuses. Asheville Superintendent Maggie Fehrman proposed a target date of Oct. 28 to reopen school buildings, while Buncombe County Superintendent Rob Jackson declined to give a goal return date. (WLOS)
Scraping by with unemployment benefits: More than 14,000 Western North Carolina residents have filed for disaster-related unemployment due to Hurricane Helene, but the benefit is capped at $350 per week, which some say is barely enough to cover necessities. (Asheville Citizen-Times)
Grandma’s letter tells of 1916 floods: Two sisters who are trying to salvage their late grandmother’s heavily damaged home in the town of Bat Cave southeast of Asheville have a letter their grandmother wrote 108 years ago describing the flood of 1916. “We have had a distressing time, such rain and floods. The slides were something terrible. … The water came in our house, it tumbled down while we were in it, we made our escape through the kitchen, all ran out through the rain.” (WLOS)
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How to help
Many organizations are working hard throughout the region to deliver and distribute food, water and supplies. You can donate to their efforts at the links below.
Hearts with Hands, a local disaster relief organization, has a donation page to provide food, supplies and water.
United Way of North Carolina has established a fund to help residents affected by the flooding.
MANNA Foodbank, which serves 16 counties in Western North Carolina, is accepting food, supplies and monetary donations. The organization’s warehouse on Swannanoa River Road in Asheville was damaged by the hurricane.
The American Red Cross is accepting donations to help residents in the Southeast.
Samaritan’s Purse, which is headquartered in Boone, is scheduling volunteers to help with debris cleanup.
Operation Blessing has a donation page to provide food, supplies and water.
E4E Relief, a Charlotte-headquartered provider of emergency financial relief programs on behalf of corporations, is accepting donations for their newly established Hurricane Helene Community Fund, offering financial support to individuals with long-term impacts from Hurricane Helene.
Cristina Bolling is managing editor of The Ledger: cristina@cltledger.com
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Business manager: Brie Chrisman