Looking Ahead After Hurricane Helene

In the Carolinas, hurricanes are a part of life. We prepare for them, watch via the media as they build in strength and then wobble inland. Over the years, we have seen some amazingly powerful storms come up from the Gulf of Mexico and over from the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Floyd always comes to mind as it was particularly devastating to my little corner of Eastern North Carolina, near Tarboro and Wilson. That storm destroyed my grandparents’ home and flooded hundreds of square miles of small towns and farmland.

Now unprecedentedly, Hurricane Helene has rewritten the playbook on what a hurricane can do to our state. Now billed as the single largest natural disaster in the state’s history, this catastrophic hurricane created flooding and tornados that have destroyed the town we call home as we know it.

After The Flood

The malt house was not damaged by flooding; however, we had to dispose of a lot of product “in motion” (no longer raw grains in the middle of the malting process) when we lost the following 12 days of power. Relief supplies arrived in full force when our team outside of Asheville Adam, Shawn, and Tyler all made their way to the malt house. Adam brought generators, lights, and plenty of food and water. Shawn’s RV served as the Riverbend office providing a much needed link to the outside world through his T-Mobile hotspot. Tyler brought some whiskey from ASW Distillery and some delicious baked goods (thank you Kelsi!).

This is where the silver lining in all of the madness started to shine through. The sun was shining, there were burgers on the grill, and cold beers in our hands. We spent time just being together….and it helped. While we try to make monthly cookouts a staple of the Riverbend calendar, those occurred during busy weeks with lives lived at full speed. These post-hurricane sessions were different. Our crew brought friends, family, dogs, and whatever food they had to share and a deeper level of camaraderie emerged.

We donned headlamps and filled orders in the dark. Several of our trucking firms had their terminals swamped with flood water, pushing us to bring on new carriers to deliver our malt. The two major interstates we rely on, I-40 and I-26, were closed. This translated to increased costs and delivery times for our customers.

Remarkably, one of the 10-ton batches had completely enough of its kilning cycle and did not spoil during this period of darkness. However, the remaining five batches were a loss due to a lack of fresh air during the germination stage or being stranded in the steep tank. The cleaning process took over a week to complete. Fortunately, we were able to donate this unusable malt (more than 100,000 pounds of it) to farmers for feed and compost.

The work required to reset the malt house was intense. Most of our crew did not have running water and a few still lacked electricity, but they resiliently showed up every day. We filled our carboys and buckets with water from our process tanks before heading home in the evenings. We shared communal lunches of cold cuts and other donated items. I even came to know the joy of a fried bologna sandwich topped with a farm fresh egg.

Relief & Gratitude

Each day seems to contain an equal amount of heartbreaking news and encouraging developments from our community at large. Gofundme pages were established for nearly every small business in town. These were designed to support staff that had been temporarily laid off in Helene’s wake and avoid an exodus of hospitality workers. Local news organizations estimated that over 20,000 people lost their jobs during the aftermath of the storm.

The painful loss of jobs and businesses contrasts the uplifting sense of community that permeates so many street corners and parking lots. Everywhere you looked in those initial weeks after the storm it seemed an aid station was popping up, offering warm meals and supplies. Neighbors worked together to clear debris, repair driveways, and provide for basic needs. The news networks remained fixated on the damage during this period, but they missed the stories of our hardworking, resilient residents quietly rebuilding their lives and our community.

The Road Ahead

Many chapters of this story have yet to unfold. As we close out October, several taprooms and restaurants have reopened to limited foot traffic. The leaves have fallen from the trees and the sun is setting on our region’s busiest tourism season. Very limited brewing has begun using potable water that is being delivered by trucks at significant expense.

Rebuilding of our communities and rivers will take months if not years. We will need everyone’s help to sustain aid through the spring to those who lost their homes. We will need tourism dollars to help our brewers, distillers, and other local businesses more than ever before.

At Riverbend, we’re beyond grateful for so many of you who reached out to check on us. We’re inspired to see the beer community mobilize around relief efforts like Higher Calling Beer and Pouring For Neighbors, and grateful for the companies choosing to brew their relief beers with Riverbend malt. We feel thankful for our incredible team and our families.

Here’s to finding hope and gratitude this season,

-Brent Manning