Hurricane Helene Reflections from Riverbend Malt House
One year ago, Hurricane Helene shook the communities of Western North Carolina with irrevocable damage. At Riverbend, we lost power in our facility and subsequently a great deal of malt product— but we were lucky. Our incredible team stayed safe from the storm, and showed up diligently to help us create a new normal. Once the lights were back on, we were able to donate this unusable malt to farmers for feed and compost.
Hurricane Helene seemed to fall away from the 24-hour news cycle as quickly as it arrived. We think it’s important to note that for months afterwards, many of our customers worked tirelessly on repairing their facilities, rebuilding their income, and reconnecting with their teams. Everyone in the area felt the impact. To name just a few of the companies that have demonstrated this resilience, we tip our hats to Hillman Beer, who had significant damage at their Old Fort location; to Whaley Farm Brewery, who rebuilt their entire building in time to celebrate three years in business.
Many of our customers and partners— too many to name here without writing the world’s longest blog post— facilitated heroic relief efforts. The River Arts District Brewing Company offered hot meals and supplies to anyone in need for weeks; Oak & Grist Distilling Co. transformed into a potable water station to support their neighbors; Walnut Grove Farms and ASR Grain Company shipped truckload after truckload of supplies to Asheville and nearby areas. Cellarest Beer Project also offered supplies and meals to their neighbors, and now in gratitude for Blue Ridge Public Radio’s coverage and updates in Hurricane Helene’s aftermath will match 100% of station donations in their taproom throughout the month of September to help them recoup losses from federal funding cuts.
Hurricane Helene Relief Beers
Also in the wake of Hurricane Helene, we worked with many breweries to provide malt for beers to benefit our community. DSSOLVR’s Higher Calling project and North Carolina Brewers Guild’s Pouring for Neighbors provided the springboard to have those conversations. As the beers made their way to taprooms across the nation, we felt kinship with the broader community.
Whether our customers crafted these relief beers, or simply just continued purchasing our malt— they made a tremendous difference in our ability to support our team and community over this past year. Again, we don’t have enough room to acknowledge everyone, but we’ll thank a few of them like Sierra Nevada, Lookout Brewing, and Riverside Rhapsody for their continued and consistent purchasing.
Visit Asheville
Asheville and the greater WNC area are heavily reliant upon tourism, which has seen expected decline since Hurricane Helene. Billy Strings blessed us with a two week residency in February, providing a huge economic boost to the small businesses throughout downtown. The music community also fanned out to support those that had lost their instruments in the flood through the work of Restring Appalachia. These efforts help preserve the old time music that has been passed down for generations throughout the region.
As spring opened up, businesses slowly began to see increased foot traffic and sales. Local leaders arranged for outdoor art markets in the reclaimed spaces throughout the River Arts District and the residences responded. The Explore Asheville group has also been hard at work engaging media far and wide to help us convey the message that we are open for business, and could use your support now more than ever. Big thanks to journalists like Joshua Bernstein and Jenn Rice for lending their influential voices to this narrative.
Now, the majority of the Blue Ridge Parkway has reopened and craft breweries in Asheville are celebrating Oktoberfest all across town. With a long and vibrant leaf season ahead, predicted to peak late in October, now is the perfect time to plan your trip to the area. If you’re headed this way, please give us a shout. We love malt house visitors!
Looking Ahead
No doubt the weeks ahead will bring tears for those we lost, but also continued hope for the future. Our community has rallied to support one another in so many powerful ways and has made great strides towards a recovery that we now know will take years to achieve. The people of Western NC are no strangers to carrying the weight of rebuilding on their backs. They responded after the Flood of 1916, and more recently with Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The scars took years to heal, but the rebirth served to strengthen our commitment to the land and our neighbors.
Hurricane Helene will be no different., We will rise again.
Please take a moment to learn about and support these organizations still working to rebuild WNC.
