Asheville’s economy, which relies heavily on tourism, has been in survival mode for more than two months after Tropical Storm Helene left the city’s water pipes and plants damaged or destroyed. Businesses that could afford a privatized water supply acquired one, but not all were in the financial position to do so. Most businesses closed for a while. Some have closed for good.
Nearly 9% of Buncombe’s residents were unemployed in October, according to the North Carolina Department of Commerce. That makes Buncombe County home to the highest unemployment rate across the state. In September, when Helene struck, the county was tied for the lowest unemployment rate in the state at just 2.5%.
Helene resulted in a $584 million total loss in revenue for retail shops, restaurants, lodging, breweries, art galleries, transportation services and other recreation and entertainment companies.
This loss represents a 70% decline in visitor spending in the fourth quarter of 2024, Vic Isley, president of Explore Asheville and the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority, told Carolina Public Press.
Now that potable city water has been restored, small businesses owners are shaking off the shock and trying to return their operations and Asheville’s economy to something resembling normal.
Hospitality industry in an expensive predicament
Restaurant owners were eager to reopen so that they could generate income, pay their employees and feed hungry Ashevillians. One of those restaurateurs is Peter Pollay, owner of Posana Restaurant and Mandara Hospitality Group. Posana was closed for five weeks after the storm.
“We waited long enough for the first round of plumbers, installers and restaurant owners to get a good water system going,” Pollay told CPP. “But it was a huge expense.”
The system itself — a water tank and a pump to pressurize the flow — was $4,000, according to Pollay. He purchased water three or four times a week, and each time, it was $850.
“It was just better to be open,” Pollay said. “You want to open as quickly as possible. You want to keep your clientele, and you definitely want to keep your staff. That was the most important thing: get people back to work, get them earning money so they can pay their bills.”
But some restaurant owners found that when they reopened, some staff had already fled Asheville’s economy, driven out after the storm by expensive rents and a lack of income. This was the case for Michel Baudouin, owner of two French restaurants in Asheville: Bouchon and RendezVous.
“After we reopened on Oct. 19, we went from being open five days a week to seven days a week in order to accommodate our downtown staff that we still have,” Baudouin told CPP.
Baudouin joined up with a group of restaurants who rented a 2,000 gallon water tank. It cost him $700 to $900 per day to supply water to his restaurants.
Since the water could not be used to wash dishes, restaurants also had to buy paper cups, plates, and utensils for their customers.
“Our restaurants are held to strict standards and guidelines, and had to go through a process with the county’s environmental health department to get their water checked,” Erin Leonard, spokesperson for Asheville’s Chamber of Commerce, told CPP.
“Our restaurant owners are really dedicated to maintaining and living up to those standards. But there are people who are still a little cautious about the water. Those people should take comfort in the high standards we have for our businesses; they are likely higher than those in your home.”
Both Pollay and Baudouin said business at their eateries has been slow. Locals have been supportive, but they aren’t the main audience for these fine dining restaurants — tourists are, and they are few and far between now.
Thankfully, they don’t have to pay for any more private water. But Pollay said a strained budget is making it increasingly difficult to meet his high standards for his restaurant.
Some restaurants in the city’s River Arts District sustained such serious structural damage in the flood that they cannot reopen, according to Meghan Rogers, executive director of the Asheville Independent Restaurant Association.
Leonard points out that Asheville’s economy will get a boost from two Restaurant Weeks this year, one starting Jan. 21 and another starting Feb. 23: a great time, she says, to visit the area.
The Omni Grove Park Inn & Spa, a popular resort in Asheville, was closed for weeks due to a loss of power and water. Their Annual National Gingerbread House Competition was cancelled, but reimagined as a Gingerbread Trail of Giving. Gingerbread houses are currently displayed at various local businesses throughout the city.
“Our focus during and after Helene has been on the safety and well-being of our associates, guests, and the community,” Isabel Miller, spokesperson for the Omni Grove Park Inn, told CPP in an email.
“The resort was temporarily closed following the storm to ensure safety and make necessary repairs while we were without potable water. While the hotel did not generate revenue during this period, we are pleased to share that we reopened on Nov. 15 and look forward to welcoming guests back to support the recovery of tourism in the area.”
Asheville’s economy faces months of losses
October was a total loss for many restaurants and hotels, a month that usually promises the biggest profits of the year, thanks to leaf-peepers and other seasonal tourists. Now businesses are heading into a time of the year that can be frustratingly slow even under normal circumstances.
“According to Tourism Economics, most destinations see visitor spending recover within an average of 14 months following a natural disaster,” Isley of Explore Asheville told CPP in an email. “Where there has been more significant infrastructure damage, such as in New Orleans following Katrina, it’s taken up to 42 months.”
This means that next autumn could present record-low tourism numbers too, a reality for Asheville’s economy that is too harsh for many business owners to face.
Explore Asheville, with Isley at the helm, created the Always Asheville Fund to provide emergency grants for small, independent businesses throughout Asheville and Buncombe County — more than $1 million has been awarded to date. The Asheville Chamber of Commerce is also raising money for small business grants through a fund called Mountain Strong for Business Recovery.
“The return of potable water is a major milestone for our community, especially businesses that are absolutely reliant upon clean water to provide services for customers, including restaurants, craft breweries and lodging,” Isley said.
“We know that businesses have gone to great lengths and personal expense to source potable water to reopen, sustain jobs for their employees, and provide much-needed services.”
Losses across sectors of Asheville’s economy
One of these much-needed businesses is Mission Health, Asheville’s only hospital. But they are not pumping city water through their pipes just yet.
“Many of our Asheville and Buncombe clinic locations are now using Asheville City water,” Mission Health spokesperson Nancy Lindell told CPP in an email.
“We have begun the process of transitioning for Mission Hospital, but with the magnitude of this facility and the complexity of some of our equipment and systems, this will continue to take some time. However, all of our services are fully open at Mission Hospital. Blue Ridge Regional Hospital (in Spruce Pine) remains fully open, but is still dependent on tanked water.”
Other sectors of Asheville’s economy with substantial losses include e-commerce, start-ups, and manufacturing companies, according to Jeff Kaplan, director of Venture Asheville, an entrepreneurial initiative of the Asheville-Buncombe Economic Development Coalition and the Asheville Chamber of Commerce.
“These companies have lost space, they’ve lost inventory, they’ve lost production time, and that’s just on the company side,” Kaplan told CPP. “Everyone’s got to put their houses back together, take care of their families and take care of their employees. This was a super stark and harsh slamming of the brakes on our economy.”
Before the storm, Asheville was on a trajectory of extreme economic growth, according to Kaplan. He cited low unemployment rates, increasing wages, high visitation and airport traffic. The problem of affordable housing plagued the city, but it was nothing that couldn’t be solved in time.
“Going forward, Asheville will never be the same,” Kaplan said.
“No one is going to forget the communal trauma we have experienced, and how we helped each other get through these really tough moments. There’s an Appalachian mindset here that sometimes means people want to strap up their boots and solve problems for themselves. For the business community, I think this storm means that we’ll continue to see more collaboration as time goes on.”
Kaplan also sees a rare silver lining in all of this: an opportunity for any business that wishes to reinvent itself to do so.
“There’s no reason anymore to stick to the status quo,” he said. “Now is the time to swing for the fences, try a new product or drop one. You don’t have to go back to the way things were just out of a sense of continuity or consistency. Now is the time to experiment.”
This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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