This is the latest installment in our Main Street NC series from the 瓜神app Politics Podcast. We're visiting communities across the state to hear from local leaders about the positives going on in their towns, and the challenges they face, from storm damage to gentrification.
Locust Street 鈥� known to locals as Lower Street 鈥� is the heart of Spruce Pine鈥檚 downtown. But its shops and restaurants are mostly gutted now after they were filled with more than eight feet of water when the remnants of Helene hit western North Carolina in September.
Record floods from the North Toe River devastated this Mitchell County mountain town of about 2,000 people, about an hour northeast of Asheville. Most of that damage won鈥檛 be covered by insurance, and business owners here are waiting for funding and materials to rebuild their storefronts.
Live Oak Gastropub owner Deanna Buchanan says she鈥檚 hopeful that she can reopen soon. Crews are now working on replacing plumbing, but she鈥檚 looking to open a second location to make ends meet in the short term.
鈥淲e got to have money coming in,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here's no money. Everybody's out of work right now, and we want to get some employees back to work.鈥�
Next door to Live Oak, Jason Hefner of Hef鈥檚 Restaurant says he鈥檚 鈥渏ust waiting on funding to come in for building materials and supplies, so we can start slowly putting back together.鈥�
Spencer Bost, who leads the town鈥檚 downtown development group, has raised $164,000 so far to help businesses rebuild, and he鈥檚 handing out the first round of grants.
鈥淭he biggest hindrance that we have now is funding, getting the building supplies to actually do everything,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e're looking at for just windows to get on the front of our businesses, we're looking at $100,000 or $150,000 for some businesses.鈥�
While the state legislature approved a small business loan program in October, Bost says the businesses in Spruce Pine were still recovering financially from the COVID-19 pandemic, 鈥渟o they're not looking at loans right now, they're looking for grants.鈥�
That鈥檚 something Democrats and Gov. Roy Cooper have requested, but so far the legislature hasn鈥檛 included in relief bills.
Much of the clean-up in downtown Spruce Pine so far has been done by volunteers who helped remove soggy drywall, mud and other debris.
One of those groups, Operation Anchor, spent a recent Tuesday removing damaged flooring from a storefront church called The Arc. The group includes volunteers from all over the country and plans to stay in the area as long as needed.
鈥淲e got the manpower, as long as we manage to get the materials, we got the time,鈥� Richard Tyler Leech said.
Several of the flooded downtown businesses have managed to partially reopen on downtown Spruce Pine鈥檚 upper street, which stayed dry in the storm. The coffee shop is serving out of the back corner of a furniture store, and a hair salon is sharing space with a florist and a gift shop.
But Helene鈥檚 damage in Mitchell County goes far beyond downtown Spruce Pine. Hard-hit remote areas of the county, like the Poplar community, are still difficult to reach thanks to washed-out roads.
And in the little mountain hamlet of Buladean near the Tennessee line, the community center continues to serve as a supply distribution hub. During a visit this month, food and clothing filled the shelves in a gym and residents filled up shopping carts.
While much of the supplies so far have come through private donations, community leaders in Mitchell County and across western North Carolina are asking for help from the state and federal government for the next phases of recovery.
瓜神app spoke with County Manager Allen Cook at the Mitchell County administration building in Bakersville.
NOTE: This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
More than two months after the storm, what's been accomplished and what still needs to be done?
鈥淲e're no longer a blacked-out community. Our whole county did not have transportation, electricity, internet and cell service during the first couple weeks of the storm.
鈥�(Replacing) private bridges are crucial, because of ambulances being able to get someone in need when the bridge is out. If they have to ford a creek or go around in another driveway through a field, we can lose citizens due to private bridges. If there's a chimney fire or something, the response time of not being able to get a fire truck to a house has implications that could cause even a forest fire, if that house burns and catches our woods on fire, which happens to have a major tree load on it from all our downed trees.鈥�
Are you seeing much activity with FEMA trailers and temporary housing here? Are there challenges with the topography here?
鈥淲e don't have a lot of town water and sewer to plug those in easy. We don't have a lot of camping trailer sites that were set up to where you could plug them in real easy, so our topography does not work well with that. I know that that is something that they are working towards, but it seems things move bit slower with the federal government side of the coin.鈥�
The water and sewer services are finally back up and running, but I understand there's still issues with that infrastructure. What still needs to be done?
鈥淲e've patched everything up, but it's a temporary patch. We have a temporary treatment facility in place. It鈥檚 still got the potential, should we have another bad flood, to be washed out again, so there's going to be some future mitigation needed on our water and sewer infrastructure, and that is in the works, but that is a three- to four-year project.鈥�
What other infrastructure issues are you facing?
鈥淥ur road infrastructure is very weak right now. As we go into winter, our roads, with the freezing and thawing, will continue to have some landslide issues here and there. A lot of our rivers might be two to three feet more shallow than they were before the storm, because a lot of gravel has washed in, which will cause the flood level to occur at a lesser amount of rain.
鈥淲e already were in a housing crunch for especially workforce housing, now we've lost houses due to the floods, so we definitely need to get some housing incentives in.鈥�
The county is known for its quartz mining operations. Are those back up to speed now?
鈥淲e are the only place in the world that has high purity quartz, and so every computer chip in the world has a relationship to this little county. When our production went down, that did cause a concern on the worldwide market. We are producing, but we're still not at full capacity producing here. Looking at them getting back to full capacity, I'm guessing it's going to be early 2025 if they're moving quick. Our water and treatment and everything is where the slowdown is.鈥�
As far as the tourism economy here, is there concern that you may have fewer visitors next year?
鈥淲e really took a tourism hit, and our tourism in Mitchell County is growing. It's been on a really solid growth curve for the last few years. We are in that rebuild and recovery phase, but a lot of our things are getting back open. If a person wants to plan to come up and stay in the spring, when everything's blooming out and beautiful, I think we're going to be up and going.鈥�
Mitchell County鈥檚 impacts by the numbers
- 338 buildings damaged
- 4,688 people registered for assistance from FEMA
- 7.5% unemployment rate in October (up from 3% before the storm)
- 8 deaths
- 120 private bridges destroyed
- 8 weeks without water and sewer service
- 45 fewer students in public schools after storm
