(bright synth music) - [Announcer] This is "Carolina Business Review."

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Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

Sonoco, a global manufacturer of consumer and industrial packaging products and services, with more than 300 operations in 35 countries.

Recently, the attention of the public and the media has now circled back around to the epic, clean fallout and the rebuilding efforts in Western North Carolina and the Upstate of South Carolina.

For those of us not living and working at Hurricane Helen's Ground Zero, we do not have the same urgency or experiential emotional memory of living through it.

Or for some people, not living through it.

Welcome again to the most widely watched and the longest running dialog on Carolina business policy and public affairs.

I'm Chris William, and we will go deeper on rebuilding and restarting and in some cases from scratch with folks who lead work and live in exactly those places hit the hardest from last fall's hurricane destruction.

Stay with us.

- [Announcer] Major funding also by Foundation for the Carolinas, a catalyst for philanthropy, and driver of civic engagement, helping individuals, nonprofits, and companies bring their charitable visions to life.

Truliant Federal Credit Union, proudly serving the Carolinas since 1952, by focusing on what truly matters, our members financial success.

Welcome to brighter banking.

And, Martin Marietta, a leading provider of natural resource-based building materials, providing the foundation on which our communities improve and grow.

On this edition of Carolina Business Review, Kit Cramer from the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, David Jackson from the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Peter O'Leary from chimney Rock village, Mayor Carol Pritchett of Lake Lure and Ben Duncan from the south Carolina Office of Resilience.

Hello.

Welcome back to our program.

This is a special program normally at the top of the program, as you just heard, our announcer, Mike Ervin, introduces our guests and their titles.

But I want to take just a beat here because this is not just a normal dialog.

This is about the recovery efforts and the rebuilding efforts of western North Carolina.

Part of the upstate of South Carolina.

And in the in, the idea is to give everyone a chance to say who they are and get a sense of who they are.

So, Kit, we known each other for a long time, but it sounds a little funny to ask you this, but tell me your name.

Tell me what your job is and tell me who you are now.

Being from Asheville.

I'm Kit Cramer, president and CEO of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.

I am a person I live in Swannanoa these days.

I moved to Swannanoa a year before the hurricane, and that's where ground zero zero for our water system main ripped right out of the ground occurred.

So I have learned the value of connection to other people that that is incredibly important, and I know I can do without power.

I can do without internet.

I can do without cellular service.

I never want to do without water again.

Mayor O'Leary, chimney Rock I just said your title, but say your name.

And who are you now?

Peter O'Leary.

I'm the mayor of chimney Rock village, and I'm also the owner and operator of Bubba O'Leary's general store, which we've had for, this Memorial Day weekend will be 33 years in business.

That's where I live.

I live above the store.

I am a member of the volunteer fire department.

I've been involved with the with the government, been mayor for close to 25 years and just just a part of the community.

I've.

I've raised my family there, built my business there from scratch.

And, you know, just, but my journeys change now.

It's different because of this storm.

And that's what, all of us in chimney Rock are dealing with.

Our journey was we had a great little journey going forward, a great little future.

And it's all been just totally thrown out the window.

And and now we're trying to figure out where that journey picks up and where does it go from here?

Ben, I know you have a different story.

So again, your name, title.

And who are you now?

Yes, I'm Ben Duncan, chief resilience officer for the state of South Carolina.

We're an office under the governor's office under Governor Henry McMaster.

Our responsibility is to lessen the impact of disasters on our community, citizens.

And that's what we've been doing for the last eight years.

Ten years now.

Since 2015.

With the first hurricane that we had, Hurricane Joaquin and most of you in North Carolina.

Remember that?

How the Hurricane Joaquin set off the coast in time?

Days and days of rain, on our state.

And so that's my responsibility.

And what we've seen, so far is that, disasters can happen anywhere.

Previously, mostly on the east coast of South Carolina.

But that changed with this disaster.

We were prepared somewhat by having a plan.

And in our plan, we saw the devastation.

If we get some of the rainfall in the areas we did with this disaster with Lee, we we we had it on our plan.

What could happen?

But it happened.

And now we're going to be more prepared next summer, your honor.

Your name, title.

And who are you now?

Yes, I'm Carol Pritchett and the mayor of Lake Lure, and I am now today, someone who lives in my Lake Lur and together with the community in Lake Lure, just looking forward, we we've managed to get past the emergency part, and we're now into recovery.

Finally, we're at a point six months later where we can see that progress has been made.

Lake Lure is open.

We are open for tourism.

We are open for business.

We're very fortunate.

We have no loss of life, which is just amazing.

Our lake for this season is not open to for use, because we're removing the remainder of the sedimentation and, subsurface debris about.

Our hopes are that by, this time certainly next year for the season, hopefully this fall will be through.

But in the meantime, you know, it's so wonderful.

Everybody's so joyous to all the trees are blooming.

We've restored so many places.

There are people where people, places where people can come to have weddings.

As I said, we've been very, very fortunate.

And, you know, I think we've all learned to be, very, focused on what are the important things in life and realize that you can, you know, with some perseverance, you you can rebuild anything.

It may look different.

It may not look exactly the same, but you can rebuild it.

Certainly.

Last but not least, in I am David Jackson.

I'm the president and CEO of the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce.

I've been in that role for almost nine years now, worked at App State for about 15 years prior to that.

So you throw some school in there.

I've been in Boone in the high country for almost 30 years now.

I don't think I've ever been more proud to live and work in western North Carolina than I am right now.

To see folks like these and the countless others that rallied around one another in the face of the worst thing that any of our communities had ever been through, was motivating.

That's what that's all going for.

Those days, weeks, and now, months afterward, were that we knew that that even though our brothers and sisters in communities north and south of us had their own issues, they still called.

They still checked in on us, and we are more united now than we've ever been before.

And that that united front is going to be a big part of the story as to what comes next, what, what.

And this is for anyone.

What what do you think is not known?

What do you think is missed by, those of us that did not go through that with you, that live in other places of the state or the region of the country, what do you think is missed?

You know, one thing that we've noticed, and I actually moved here in 2011 from Houston and lived my whole life in Houston or Dallas, so much bigger cities.

I think, you know, the realization that most all of us certainly in chimney Rock and like Laura, it's small business owners and there is such a finite length of time that people can actually hang in there.

And that, I think, was a real sobering thought for everyone.

And so we all know that recovery is a long term process, but there has to be some way to help people whose businesses have been destroyed and other avenues like loans.

Maybe people can't afford to pay the note on a loan, right?

So I think that's been really on everyone's mind now that it's our responsibility to make sure that we focus certainly on the infrastructure, because that's the problem in like making sure we do whatever we can to get the economy back.

Get and mayor and people leaving the community is there is there a contingent of folks that go in?

I'm done.

I can't do this again.

There may be a few, but our data is showing that people are staying, which is great, and they want to come back.

Our workforce wants to come back, and part of that connection is we need everybody in the state to come with all the money they can in their pockets.

And because there, there are broad segments of our community that are open and available, it's different.

But there are those you can come and have a great experience in downtown Asheville.

You can go to the River Arts District.

It's different than it was.

There are plenty of things you can do.

Your experience will be different, so come and bring money and expect it to be a little different.

It's just that's the way it's going to be.

So mayor, would money fix it?

Would money fix chimney Rock?

Money would go a long way to fixing chimney Rock.

And absolutely, money is very important.

But we have, we need people to we need support.

I mean, that is that is huge for us.

And we've had support.

We've got a group, and all levels.

I don't, I don't mean to to single out any one group and say they're the most important, but, you know, the state, the local, the national, every, every level is important, dot.

And they're all doing their part.

But on a real personal level, the small businesses that was mentioned earlier, you know, which is the lifeblood of chimney Rock in western North Carolina, we've had a group come in spokes of hope, and they have brought in volunteers, skilled labor, they've gotten donations and they're rebuilding all of the businesses in chimney Rock and with volunteers.

I've had over 2000 volunteers since the hurricane come through.

And they they have given us so much hope and so much, hope for the future that we can get back on our feet.

And that's one of the things that struck me is, is so striking about this whole event is the response of people.

And it's been so heartwarming and so supportive, and it really gives us the energy and the, ability to keep going forward is when all these people come and just say, what can we do?

How can we help?

But I'll circle back around and say, money's very important for sure.

Still, is it?

Absolutely.

Do you think that comes through tourism playing that.

Is that is that the pipeline by and large.

It's it's one of the ways.

But literally back to I don't want to be a broken record.

But small business is what makes Asheville a very special place.

People come for these these experiences they can't have anywhere else.

What comes along with that small business is they don't have the same kind of depth of pocketbook that some of the national brands might have.

They don't have the expertise that a national brand would bring to recovery.

So when you lose a whole season like the fall that was lost for for all kinds of businesses, not just hospitals, it's a huge barrier to recovery.

So we've been advocating and the David's my partner in crime and advocating for, for, small business grants because we're on the heels of Covid and they all were they were all still paying off loans from Covid.

We need businesses to come back.

So they're re employing people, getting them back to work, creating the experiences that everybody expects.

You know what what runs in all of this.

And I know, you know, it is the idea of the trauma that people still feel.

And you all sound optimistic.

I don't I'm not trying to be a wet blanket on any of this.

However, trauma is a real thing and it has long lasting effect.

And when you were talking about Hurricane Joaquin dumping untold amount of rain in the Midlands and South Carolina, and you had 26ft record height of the of the Congaree River, whatever that runs.

And so been the idea of trauma.

And now the trauma gets relived when this happens in the upstate or the western part of North Carolina, how does the state how do you respond with some type of mental health initiative or at least minimal support?

What does that look like?

Oh, we we are ready for that.

We have, case managers that come in very quickly, for Hurricane Helene, I think we have around 60 case managers that come in fairly quickly, and they are in place now.

To assist those citizens with any unmet needs that they may have.

It could be housing, it could be mental health, it could be, clothing, it could be anything.

We assist with those those things.

Matter of fact, we received, $22 million from FEMA to help with those case managers coming in to assist our citizens, and they're there on a daily basis.

Mayor, how do you do that in a small community like Lake Lower?

How do you address the mental health issue and where do you find the funds for it?

Well, you know, we've we've been fortunate, through the county, our emergency center in Rutherford County, they've provided that that huge, huge of huge benefit because really small communities like Lake Laura or Chimney Rock really just don't have the resources to do that.

You know, I think that's been was a huge immediate something that was addressed immediately, which was very important because there was a point what happened in Lake where, of course, we don't have our small businesses or bed and breakfast hotels, restaurants, we don't have stores, we don't sell merchandise.

There are product is the beauty of the lake.

It's the beauty of the mountains and the trails.

And so, it's a little bit different than ideas.

You can't just get people to come back in and buy things.

On the other hand, the good thing about it is, as we move forward now, people are starting to look with a great sense of hope of the lake.

Everything is open now with the exception of the lake, and that we've had begun, as I said earlier, removing the debris from that.

So people are looking at it, you know, with the concept that I think if you always have hope and you sort of hang on to that, and we see the beautiful spring now, people are confident that they can weather this, David.

And we're not going to drag this out too much.

But, mental health and trauma are not just a one and done fix.

And you go ahead.

Now you know, go keep keep doing it.

So how do you address that and Watauga County Boone.

Well, I think you have to acknowledge it.

You have to acknowledge the fact that that unlike people that don't live in the area, you turn the TV off, you don't see it anymore.

But we see it every single day.

And and, you know, there are parts of our communities that are forever changed.

But I'll go back to something that the mayor said, though, that that maybe sparks the hope that we're talking about and that, you know, our, our region of the state has, has paid out hospitality for decades.

People come to the to the mountains to, to learn what it is that beauty is, and, and for some people, they make their life there after that, those decades spent in that regard, hosting people and hosting experiences has come to pay us back now.

And I think the hope comes from the fact that people have their heart strings attached at this particular area of the state so incredibly deeply that what helps us from a mental health standpoint is when those longtime customers walk back into it's small business and they put their hand out, or they open up their arms to give somebody a hug.

And that might sound trivial in some case.

I can't tell you how therapeutic that's been for the reconnection of people that sent money, they sent donations, they sent supplies.

They they brought their personal sweat equity.

And now they can physically walk back into the place and say, I'm so glad to see you again.

That means as much as any program could, that that gets stood up at any level.

We had, North Carolina Department of Transportation Secretary Jody Hopkins on the program a couple months ago, and he was visibly emotionally moved talking about some of those issues that he witnessed firsthand.

And, again, not going to keep going down this rabbit hole on emotion and trauma.

But, how do you feel like the city of Asheville and the community in Buncombe County has addressed that enough to where it's health, it's healthy support for all the residents to move forward?

Well, I don't know about y'all, but I have PTSD on a really windy day.

Do you realize.

I kid you not, I was in Blowing Rock at a meeting with David, actually, and and I there was a bad snowstorm and wind and I was feeling in my chest.

We set up the chamber as an emergency center for business.

So we had, you know, SB, TDC, we had the SBA, we had Mountain Biz Works and all the entities there.

But we also had non-profits who were offering counseling and group sessions with people every week for free because it's pretty traumatic.

I mean, and driving by it being in Swannanoa, it's visceral.

So every time we get a tanker truck off, off of a riverbank or a bridge that reopens, that allows people to not have to drive into Black Mountain to come back into Swannanoa and get to their neighborhood.

It's huge.

I mean, there was one truck that was turned over that was decorated by the people in Beacon Village with Christmas lights because it had been there for so long, they decorated it.

It was a red letter day when they finally got that truck out of there.

So we are celebrating every little milestone because it has been traumatic.

Mayor O'Leary, is this is an opportunity?

I know we've talked we talked about this before the program, but this has to be an opportunity to design and build something different and better.

And especially in chimney Rock, when it's hard to look around and see things that are completely gone.

But is does the phoenix rise out of the ashes so to speak, here?

I think so we it always feel funny when I talk about the opportunities because, you know, it's you feel like you're almost taken up the advantage of a terrible situation.

But that but the situation happened.

And we have to recognize that.

We have to recognize what the river did, what the river where it wants to go.

And we have to respond to that and try to build back in a way that's going to keep us safe in the future.

And it's also going to take advantage of the opportunities that have been given us.

And I do agree, I think there's so much focus has been placed on western North Carolina and Chimney Rock in particular, that it is an opportunity for us to rebuild and we put a task force together with that in mind.

And we said, this is a terrible disaster, but it also gives us an opportunity.

So what are we going to do with it?

Are we going to, ten years from now?

They're going to say, wow, they've never really recovered.

Are we going to say ten years from now?

Look at what they did to regrow and rebuild and reimagine chimney Rock.

And our view is we can make it better than it was before.

I always say the old chimney rock is gone.

It is gone.

It lives in our memories and it will never come back.

But the new chimney Rock can be better.

And that's what we want to do.

We want to take this opportunity and make it better.

What?

We have about five minutes left.

Anyone?

How long do you think it will be before you're back to normal?

Whatever that means.

I think normal has been redefined.

I think that that part of the Appalachia culture, though, is, is the long term mindset, right?

That people haven't been there just for a minute.

They've been there for generations.

And I think it's a generational commitment to to return to the roots of the things that make our area so attractive.

Anyway.

But when you look at, at recovery, you know, there's the physical part of it.

There's certainly an economic piece.

And that's where people come into play so much.

If people want to know how they can help that process, it is to return and understand.

There going to be some minor inconveniences here.

But we've been living through it for six months.

We'll tell you how to, to get around.

We have water.

But that's going to happen.

I think that's going to lessen the timeline.

The quicker that we can get people to reengage, and understand that it's safe to do so, and it is respectful to do so.

I think that's going to go a long way to helping us get there faster.

What do you think?

How long?

Normal, whatever that is.

You know, I would say we're normal once again, we're we're redefining that word.

So we're certainly open now in lake Lure now.

The only thing that you can't do is go into the lake.

But we have major infrastructure, repairs, replacements that need to be made, that that's going to take probably several years.

I think one of the things in sort of talking about, we were talking about here is one of the things we're really focusing on, Lake Lure is the resiliency.

We want to make sure that we're better prepared in the future.

Another hurricane will come.

We know that it will come.

We need to capitalize on what we've learned in this one, and make sure that anything we're doing now is going to take advantage of that new knowledge and make sure that we are better prepared.

We still we're the only dam between the broad River and South Carolina.

We need to make sure that that dam is is what we need.

We need to make sure that the lake is in pristine condition.

So I think it's going to be to put a timeline on it.

I think it's almost a gradually evolving process where we get better and better and better.

But the reality is we are open now.

You just can't go in the like.

It's like saying you go to a town, the swimming pool is closed, but there's so many other things that you can do.

That's right.

We have about two minutes left.

Ben, are there different processes or operations that you do now that maybe you wouldn't have done before that, that you learned?

You know what we don't have to we don't need to go down that road.

We can just do this and get something done more quickly.

Yes, we've coordinated more with that with our nonprofit organizations.

We'll one nonprofit, when they see, they raised $6 million to start the recovery faster than government can start.

So we know the directions now, we have more nonprofits working with us to get us in the recovery road.

If you asked a question about, how long does it take to recover?

You always in recovery mode, right now from our three previous storms before.

Helene, we have 44 infrastructure projects going on.

We have plans and studies for cities and counties that don't understand their flooding issue, so that we can be they be better prepared in the future, which will lead to infrastructure projects.

We have, home buyouts in areas where there's repetitive flooding.

We are buying 190 homes out that we know will flood with heavy rain or, hurricane.

So we are always in the recovery mode.

We are in the prevention mode.

We are in the resilience mode so that we can, do what's best for our citizens in South Carolina.

We're going to end with you in in about a minute.

Economists call this what we're talking about.

Creative destruction is that is that too.

Flippant to say?

I think all of this has.

There's a tenderness for people in terms of how you approach, recovery or or any of those types of things.

We were in the middle of our economic strategic plan and had to pivot right in the middle in terms of rethinking what recovery was going to look like and to weave it into every single thing we do because we're on parallel paths.

There are aspects of our all of our communities that are back to normal, and then there are others that are decimated.

And so it's going to be a process to to move through it, and it's going to take persistence.

The advocacy that we've had to do has it's I feel almost greedy almost, because we'll ask and get help and then we need more help.

Well, thank you all.

And that's an understatement.

Every one of you, I think your superpower is being calm and being leader, so.

Thank you.

I'm.

I'm humbled to sit here and thank you for your leadership and being kind enough to come down and sit in this studio and do all this, truly.

I don't even know what else to say.

Thank you for watching our program.

Until next week, I'm Chris William.

Goodnight.

- [Announcer] Gratefully acknowledging support by, Martin Marietta, Truliant Federal Credit Union, Foundation for the Carolinas, Sonoco, Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, High Point University, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

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