In September of last year, Hurricane Helene made landfall in the southern U.S. as a devastating Category 4 storm. Jessie Dean, founder and CEO of a small business that was washed away by the storm, joins "The Daily Report" to discuss.

North Carolina

Hurricane Helene struck the southern United States as a category four storm, causing at least 250 deaths and record-breaking rainfall in North Carolina. The resulting floods devastated many small businesses, including Asheville Tea Company, which lost its production space and inventory.

Jessie Dean, founder of Asheville Tea Company, described the challenges of rebuilding, including relocating operations to a shared-use facility and partnering with a Canadian co-manufacturer. Dean emphasized the importance of community support and local shopping for the survival and recovery of small businesses in the region.

Recovering small business in North Carolina after Hurricane Helene

in September of last year, Hurricane Helene made landfall in the southern U.S. as a devastating category four storm, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Helene was responsible for at least 250 deaths in the U.S., making it the deadly U.S. hurricane since Katrina in 2005. As it moved north, Helene dropped record-breaking amounts of rainfall across North Carolina, causing several rivers in the region to overflow. One of the businesses washed away in the tragedy was Asheville Tea Company. We spoke with Jessie Dean, the founder and CEO of the small business, directly after the hurricane hit and then again six months later. Now we're in production for our next round of tea, and we have those up for pre-order. And we're producing a shared-use space over at a small business center at A.B. Tech Community College. And that's a really great place for us to land right now and regroup. So it's much smaller than our old space, but it's a really wonderful facility. And Jessie Dean joins us again from Asheville, North Carolina. Jessie, how are you doing? Hi, Lindsey. It's nice to see you, and thanks for asking. We're doing better. I mean, better every day. You know, I think it's true for us and for so many small businesses throughout western North Carolina right now. We are actively recovering and doing the best that we can to move forward after Hurricane Helene. And for us in particular, we're still producing in a temporary space, but we've started looking for new spaces. So that's the really exciting news on our front, is that we hope to be able to pull all of our manufacturing back under our own roof really soon. So we're getting there. You know, we still have a long road to go throughout our region and for us as a business, too, but we're leaning into all the support and so much gratitude for that and working hard to get back into a manufacturing space. I mean, you guys, you lost your space and you lost your product, right? So you have had to build back from scratch. Have there been any unexpected challenges in addition to really the hard work that goes into that? Absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, this is something that you really can't prepare for in a lot of ways. You know, as much as you do try to prepare for things, this was an unforeseen circumstance. So I think coming into this and trying to figure out how we can get the specific types of equipment that we need to make our tea bags and our boxes has been a challenge and that resulted in us working with a co-manufacturer in Canada. And so, you know, Asheville Tea Company is very much a regional value chain, you know, purpose driven, supporting local farmers company. And so it was a huge pivot to start to work with with a co-manufacturer in Canada. And we have been joking that we've had this kind of like we're getting an MBA and being able to better understand like importing and exporting because that's something so new to us. Well, and that leads me to my next question, because Small Business Saturday is this weekend. What is the importance of shopping local and what are your goals going forward? Yes, it is Small Business Saturday coming up. And I think like for all of Western North Carolina and definitely for us, it is so important to shop local because when you shop local, you're helping people like Asheville Tea Company, you're helping my team of employees, you're helping our families and all of these small businesses, especially throughout Asheville and Western North Carolina, who are recovering from Hurricane Helene, who lost so much and are fighting hard for survival. And those purchases mean the world because that's what helps us to survive as companies and to continue to provide what we hope is a really, really great product for us, a great cup of tea that's made with love and sourced from local farmers and being able to steep that into your cups for the holiday season. Well, Jessie Dean, happy Thanksgiving to you guys. Good luck. Thank you. Thank you so much, Lindsay.

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