Hendersonville businesses still struggle five months after Helene's impact

HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — After more than five months since Helene wrecked through the mountains, many areas like Downtown Hendersonville are still struggling to see a return of visitors.

Daryl and Lisa Waldrop own and operate four businesses downtown: Pisgah Forest Gem Mine & Gifts, LazyOne, BigFoot Ammo Store and Fins on Fifth.

Longtime resident, Daryl said Hendersonville has always been a good family place to do business. This was until Helene hit, which completely changed their business experience.

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“It was hard because yes, you’re open and you need people to come in and the people who have lost their homes need to work so that they have money to get going again,” Lisa said.

People were just not coming to the area, the reality right after Helene's destruction.

“They felt like the whole area was just like washed away,” Lisa said.

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Now, nearing the six-month mark since Helene, both said the lack of tourism is something they’re still heavily dealing with.

“And everybody’s still dealing with it, it’s been a long process, it’s something we’ve never had to experience before thankfully,” Daryl said.

Daryl said that they’re down 70% to 80% in foot traffic and in January and February alone they hardly saw anyone on the street.

While they’re starting to see a bit more foot traffic, Daryl said most of it is local. Lisa said it's challenging when all of their businesses thrive off of tourism.

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“I would say about 80% of our business is tourism, we get a lot of day trippers, overnight trippers coming into the area and that’s what the majority of downtown Hendersonville business is,” Lisa said.

That’s been far from the case the last few months, Lisa said between last January and this January they’re down 40% to 50% in revenue.

Losing that amount of revenue is hard especially when they have employees who depend on them, and they’re trying to balance saving payroll but not losing their employees.

“You want to keep their hours up, but you’ve got to have tourism coming in to keep their hours up,” Lisa said.

Right now, both Daryl and Lisa are working a lot of hours to try and save money where they can.

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They’ve spent a lot of time wondering if their businesses will see another day.

“It’s not just us, it’s a lot of people down here who are at the edge of what we can bear,” Daryl said.

He said if it wasn’t for the graciousness of the owners of their buildings giving them leeway when it comes to rent, they wouldn’t be here today.

Both are determined not to give up hope and continue to stay optimistic.

“The Lord’s the one who gives you your strength, He’s the one who gives you your peace, He’s the one who gives you your hope and you know that God is in control,” Lisa said.

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They want to remind the public that there are places like Downtown Hendersonville that were not damaged by the flood but need business.

“Everything you want to do is here, you won’t shortchange your vacation, you won’t mess it up, you won’t not have fun, you’ll have a lot of fun in Downtown Hendersonville,” Lisa said.

Both are looking ahead to spring and are hopeful a surge in tourism will come with the change in weather.