Commercial Truck Insurance in Morganton, NC

Keith Flynn said he has gotten emotional several times since Hurricane Helene moved through Morganton, damaging homes and businesses, including Ingles Market, where Flynn works.

Flynn has been the manager of the Ingles in Morganton for 26 years. He considers the store a second home.

The store is a source of pride for Flynn, and he gets sentimental about it. Over the past three weeks, he’s found himself crying, Flynn said.

“I love the place, and I didn’t know how much until this happened,” Flynn said.

When the nearby Catawba River rose over Carbon City Road, it brought water inside the store. The flood rose 2 to 3 feet inside, Flynn said.

After the storm, the store’s equipment, shelving and perishables were removed, and the interior is currently empty, Flynn said.

He said the corporate office is deciding whether it will go ahead and remodel the Morganton store — it was scheduled to be remodeled in five years — or just replace everything.

Flynn said the store didn’t suffer any structural damage. He said crews have cleaned out all the drywall to alleviate any potential for mold. Environmental workers are coming in to make sure it is all taken care of, so the store can get everything back in stock, Flynn said.

Helene didn’t just flood the store. It also scattered the store’s employees, whom Flynn calls family.

There are employees at the store whom Flynn has worked with for 30 years. He said employees of the store have been relocated to other locations for now.

Flynn said he doesn’t have a definitive date for when the Morganton store will reopen.

“We’re just trying to make sure we do it right, you know, and don’t just throw it together and just try to take our time to make sure it’s done right,” Flynn said.

In addition to Morganton, Hurricane Helene damaged three other Ingles Markets stores in Swannanoa, Newland and Spruce Pine, Flynn said.

“Definitely, it’ll be going again,” Flynn said of the Morganton location. “I know that 100%.”

Ingles Markets near Morganton that are open include the Marion store at 625 W. Henderson St., and the store across Castle Bridge at 2630 Connelly Springs Road, Granite Falls.

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Ingles Markets, the Asheville-based grocery mainstay of Western North Carolina, sustained severe damage to its distribution center along the Swannanoa River and several supermarket locations when Tropical Storm Helene hit the mountains just over three weeks ago.

The severe damage to Ingles’ Black Mountain distribution center will have a long-term ripple effect across the region, impacting Western North Carolinians’ food security, diet quality, unemployment levels, consumer behavior, and the viability of the company itself.

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Plus, Ingles locations in four Western NC communities remain closed: Spruce Pine, Morganton, Swannanoa and Newland. In some cases, these closures are creating new food deserts in a region that is difficult to traverse due to damaged roads and mountainous terrain.

In the week leading up to Helene, operations at Ingles had already begun to falter. Storm anxiety caused waves of bulk-buying, and customers across the region were met with empty shelves.

The storm hit overnight in the early hours of Sept. 27, causing severe and worsening flooding in many Western North Carolina rivers and streams, including the Swannanoa River, the banks of which are home to the Ingles distribution plant in Black Mountain. Like much of the area, the plant lost power and sustained other damage.

Recognizing the important of Ingles to the region, U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-Hendersonville, sent “an industrial-sized generator” to power the distribution site. Employees spent the night at the distribution center on Sept. 29 to await its arrival.

“This will allow the distribution facility to begin emptying its shelves to restock empty stores,” Edwards said in a Sept. 30 statement.

Unfortunately, the area along the Swannanoa River near the plant made for some of the most dramatic wreckage of the storm. Though some key preparations were made at the plant, no one was prepared for the strength and volume of the river water.

“Ingles Markets is devastated by the catastrophic damage from Helene,” an Oct. 2 Facebook post from the grocery chain said.

“Unprecedented destruction and tragic loss of life have touched every town, city, community, and business. Our hometown Black Mountain, North Carolina, which houses our distribution center was one of these areas. We had loss of power, critical infrastructure, transport vehicles, inventory, and yes even loss of life.”

The generator could not be operated immediately, due to the severity of the damage. Crews also had to deal with large volumes of mud, including at the dock’s parking area, according to Edwards’ office. But the generator was connected and operational on Oct. 3, when it began to power about half of the facility. Partial food distribution also began. The emergency power allowed distribution to resume five to seven days earlier than it could have otherwise, according to Maria Kim, communications director for Rep. Edwards.

Operations at the distribution center returned to normal on Oct. 14, according to Kim.

However, the physical damage to the distribution center remains particularly devastating to the chain’s long-term operations and bottom line, as well as to continued availability of food in the region.

“Loss of a distribution center compounds losses because it expands the area impacted, which may extend to communities not hurt by the storm,” Michael Walden, NC State professor of consumer economics, told Carolina Public Press.

“Rebuilding the damaged facilities will require a long period — months, maybe years — which implies temporary facilities may have to be erected to store the quantities required by the communities. Because grocery stores and supermarkets provide products essential for living, replacing and repairing them will likely receive priority.”

After the storm, Ingles parking lots across the disaster zone became food distribution hubs for both people and pets. Even though the store itself was closed, Chick-Fil-A gave out free meals at the Ingles store in Swannanoa on Oct. 7. The Red Cross and Samaritan’s Purse have done the same. Ingles also partnered with MANNA Foodbank to distribute shelf-stable foods and essential supplies to storm survivors.

Ingles’ stock price dropped more than 18% between Sept. 30 and Oct. 7. There has been a slight rebound of 2.5% in the last five days, however.

Phone lines are still down at Ingles’ headquarters in Asheville, and company spokespeople did not respond to emails in time for publication.

The Ingles location in Spruce Pine is one of the four stores that remain closed. The store is one of the top employers of Mitchell County, leaving hundreds out of work. The deadline to apply for Disaster Unemployment Assistance through the state is Dec. 2.

Remote parts of the county depend on this Ingles location for food just as much as the residents of Spruce Pine, and the closure of the Ingles has created or worsened food deserts.

“Here in Bakersville, there is no grocery store, so we travel to the Ingles in Spruce Pine for groceries,” Charles Bynes, chair of the economic development board for Mitchell County, told CPP.

“Now that Ingles is closed, we have the Dollar General store for groceries, or a 20-mile commute to the Ingles in Burnsville. Two of the three restaurants we had in Bakersville were destroyed in the flood.”

Many residents in counties with closed Ingles locations — Mitchell, Avery, Buncombe, and Burke — are resorting to dollar stores for groceries, which notoriously lack healthy options.

“The net effect of damage to Ingles’ distribution center is worsened diet quality in the mountains,” Barry Popkin, professor of nutrition at UNC-Chapel Hill, told CPP. “In the case where the only grocery option becomes a dollar store, it’s very bad. Dollar stores have zero produce and zero healthy options. It’s all highly processed food, whereas a normal grocery store like Ingles has fresh meat, produce, eggs, and other healthy options.”

But Matthew Metzgar, economics professor at UNC-Charlotte, points out that anything is better than nothing.

“Areas that have dollar stores are probably a little better protected at the moment in terms of food security,” Metzgar said. “And even communities that have big grocery stores will take a hit on food quality in the short-term, because so much refrigeration went out. Perishable foods like meat, eggs, fruit, and vegetables are much harder to get across the board.”

Burke County’s Ingles location in Morganton sustained the worst flooding of any grocery store in town, according to city manager Sally Sandy.

“Ingles’ temporary closure is certainly a part of our economic distress after the storm,” Sandy told CPP. “We had 55 businesses flood, and Ingles is one of those, and also one of our largest grocery stores. It is a regional draw for us too, with substantial employment.”

Damage to roads means accessing stores that remain open, or even emergency food distribution centers, is difficult for some Western North Carolinians.

Food insecurity is already an issue in counties directly impacted by closures of Ingles store locations. In Buncombe County, 15,880 households receive food stamps through the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. In Burke County, 5,814 households are on food stamps. In Mitchell County, the number is 1,213 households, while in Avery County, it’s 998.

Those impacted by Tropical Storm Helene can apply for Disaster-SNAP, or D-SNAP, assistance between Oct. 18 and Oct. 24. The program expands eligibility to those who may not normally qualify to receive food stamps. The USDA has deemed more than 150,000 households in North Carolina eligible to apply for D-SNAP.

“We had a strong start to D-SNAP enrollment over the weekend,” DHHS spokesperson Kelly Haight told CPP in an email.

As of Monday morning, more than 12,000 households and 30,000 individuals have been approved to receive D-SNAP benefits in Western North Carolina.

Clarification: This article was updated on Oct. 25, based on new information that became available about the installation of a generator at the Ingles distribution facility in Black Mountain.

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Tagged: amdailiyAshevilleAvery CountyBuncombe CountyBurke Countyfood insecurityjobsMitchell CountyTropical Storm HeleneWestern NC

Jane Winik Sartwell

Jane Winik Sartwell is a staff reporter for Carolina Public Press, who focuses on coverage of health and business. Jane has a bachelor's degree in photography from Bard College and master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. She is based in Wilmington. Email Jane at jsartwell@carolinapublicpress.org to contact her.