The recovery continues for a 27-year-old Chimney Rock business that was devastated by Hurricane Helene. Shari Cummings, one of the business owners, says she was in the building and recorded the last moments before she washed away. Nut and said the raging flood waters took away decades of memories.” Outside our house, then, nothing is there but all our clothes, all that we have saved. “Mostly things are things, and you you can survive it. It’s memories you can’t, you know, boxes of photos, things like that.” More than a month since the flood took everything from her, she says insurance is still leaving her. in the dark.” claimed we only lived in 15% of the building. I think because he couldn’t understand that the shop was on one floor and the house was downstairs. He would give us 15% of what we had and then depreciate the value,” she said. In the days after the flood, she and her business partners worked to recover some inventory from the store. “We took boxes and would we filled the boxes with everything we could. grip, and then, we got a long tube, and Max would tie it, pass it to each of us, and we’d put them in the box because the roof collapsed and there were things hanging down He could even pull out the quilts, we lost some quilts. They fell into the river like most of our inventory,” she said. With less than 10% of the merchandise left, Cummings has set up a temporary store at Tryon International. The Horse Center, where some products still have marks from flood.”We would have no income, no way to do anything, no kind of support, bills,” she said. She remains optimistic that relief is still on the way. Anyone, a corporation somewhere along the way, hopefully someone will have the idea and mean it, and we can figure something out because that’s what we’re going to need,” she said. “You have to keep going. To get to the good. No matter the worst things in your life happen. And that moment, they’re terrifying and you don’t know what you’re going to do. But if you keep going, you’ll get to the next door.” Cummings said she will meet with the Army Corps of Engineers on Friday as they assess the damage. You can make a donation to support The Hickory Nut’s fresh start on GoFundMe, here.
The recovery continues for a 27-year-old Chimney Rock business that was destroyed by floodwaters from Hurricane Helene.
Half of a building is all that remains of the Hickory Nut at Chimney Rock in North Carolina. Shari Cummings, one of the business owners, says she was in the building and recorded the last moments moments before she was washed away.
“I looked down. So my phone went like this, up to my feet, and I looked down and there was our refrigerator on the back with magnets floating from the house down the river,” she said.
She lived under Hickory Nut and said raging flood waters took away decades of memories.
“It went through the whole bottom of the floor and took out our house. So we lost everything. Nothing is there. From what I can see, there are two bathrooms and they were on the back wall. But all our clothes , we saved everything,” she said. “Mostly things are things, and you can survive it. It’s memories you can’t, boxes of pictures, things like that.”
More than a month since the flood took everything, she says insurance is still leaving her in the dark.
“[Insurance] claimed we only lived in 15% of the building. I think because he couldn’t understand that the shop was on one floor and the house was downstairs. He would give us 15% of what we had and then depreciate the value,” she said.
In the days after the flood, she and her business partners worked to recover some inventory from the store.
“We got boxes, and we’d fill the boxes with whatever we could get our hands on, and then we’d get a long tube, and Max would hook up [items]hand it over to any of us, and put them in boxes because the roof collapsed and there were things hanging. This was the only way we could get out. Even the quilts, we lost some quilts. They fell into the river like most of our inventory,” she said.
With less than 10% of her merchandise remaining, Cummings has set up a temporary store at the Tryon International Equestrian Center, where some products still bear signs of the flood.
“We would have no income, no way to do anything, no support, no bills,” she said.
She remains optimistic that relief is still on the way.
“Anybody, a corporation somewhere along the way, hopefully somebody will get the idea and speak up, and we can figure something out because that’s what we’re going to need,” she said. “You have to keep going. To get to the good. No matter if the worst things in your life happen. And that moment, they’re terrible and you don’t know what you’re going to do. But if you keep going, you will go to the next door.”
Cummings said she will meet with the Army Corps of Engineers on Friday as they assess the damage.
You can make a donation to support The Hickory Nut’s new start on GoFundMe, here.