Today’s round of Helene questions, my replies and the real answers:
Question: I have a question for the Answer man. I heard the Ingles Distribution Center in Black Mountain was flooded during Helene. Did they lose a lot of inventory? How have they been able to reopen?
My answer: Man, as usual, I just could not get Ingles to stop talking to me about this.
Real answer: I got no response from an Ingles designated spokesperson. I did drive out to the distribution center the week following Helene, and by mid-week it was back open, at least partially.
A worker told me it was back up and functioning.
But it was clear the massive distribution center took a serious blow. Mud and dirt remained in the parking lot. The storm clearly hit the company hard.
On Oct. 2, Ingles posted that the company “is devastated by the catastrophic damage from Helene.
“Unprecedented destruction and tragic loss of life have touched every town, city, community, and business,” the post continued. “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. We were all severely impacted.”
The company has nearly 200 stores in six Southeastern states, and the company noted it had “stores in our region with significant damage and some stores still without power and water.
“We are working diligently to bring operations back online and begin helping our community. Ingles is known for being there when hard times fall, it is part of our fabric to respond,” the post continued. “At this time when we are reliant, we are grateful to our vendors, media partners and charity organizations we have coming to help us.”
An Oct. 19 Facebook post gave more insight.
“Ingles continues to make huge strides in our progress to bring our distribution center to full capacity,” the post stated. “While the losses were significant, only eight days after the devastation Ingles markets began to ship groceries to stores. This along with an incredible team of associates, vendors, and other distribution partners most of our stores are open. As we continue to make progress you will see more and more Ingles Trucks on the road…Give a wave or a honk; like you they are excited to be back to work.”
Ingles has hosted charitable events and food giveaways, and partnered with groups such as the Red Cross, MANNA Food Bank, Hearts With Hands, and Samaritan’s Purse to help flood victims.
As of Oct. 24, Ingles’ website listed four stores as still temporarily closed. They’re in Swannanoa, Morganton, Newland and Spruce Pine. // Watchdog photo by John Boyle
As of Oct. 24, Ingles’ website listed four stores as still temporarily closed. They’re in Swannanoa, Morganton, Newland and Spruce Pine.
From my store in Fletcher, it’s been pretty evident that Ingles has had trouble stocking some items, including the ice cream I badly want right now but certainly do not need.
By the way, the online news publication The Assembly, based in Raleigh, had an excellent report on Ingles Oct. 8 titled, “A Homegrown Grocery Giant Stumbles After Helene.”
It noted: “The company’s distribution center and corporate offices sit on the banks of the Swannanoa River, which crested at over 26 feet, a level not seen since 1791 and roughly 10 feet higher than the National Weather Service’s major flood stage.”
The article also said of the distribution center, “aerial footage from September 30 shows its parking lots coated in mud.”
Question: I live in Asheville but my water comes from Woodfin. I am getting water, thankfully. However, while the city of Asheville has been very proactive with their daily water updates, Woodfin has not. Phone calls go unanswered and the last system update on their website is dated Oct. 13. I’m following Asheville’s guidance for now, but it would be nice to get some details from Woodfin. Is the water safe for bathing, dishwashing and/or laundry? What’s happening with the treatment facility? And what’s the timeframe for restoration of full service?
My answer: I feel like if I answer this poorly, I might get censured by the town board.
Real answer: First of all, a point of clarification.
“Woodfin Water is a separate water authority and not part of town government,” Woodfin Town Manager Shannon Tuch told me via email.
She referred me to Seth Eckard, the Woodfin Water District’s executive director.
“I’m pleased to inform you that the Woodfin Water District has fully restored water service to all customers,” Eckard said via email Oct. 21. “As of late last week, we’ve successfully repaired all known water line breaks and leaks throughout the service area.”
Eckard said the Woodfin Water Plant is operating “at full capacity and has been consistently producing high-quality water since the storm.
The Woodfin Water District, a separate authority from the town’s government, has repaired all its known water line breaks and leaks, but customers remain under a boil water advisory, // Watchdog photo by Keith Campbell
“In addition, our system is currently supplemented by water from the City of Asheville, which means we will remain under a mandatory boil water notice until the city lifts its advisory,” Eckard said. “While this notice is in effect, we ask our customers to boil water for at least one minute before consumption.”
The water is safe for non-consumption uses such as washing clothes, dishes, and bathing, but don’t drink it.
Eckard said he’s “sorry to hear about any customer who had difficulty reaching us.” He noted that the office is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and you can reach it at 828-253-5551.
“Additionally, we regularly post updates on our Facebook page, website (woodfinwater.com), and via our text alert system,” Eckard said. “Customers interested in receiving real-time alerts can find instructions on how to sign up by visiting our website.”
Question: I am seeing people talking about this article from Black Mountain News from 2017 and stating that the bypass line for the current Asheville water supply is running through the former Chemtronics plant Superfund site. I didn’t know anything about this article until I saw it tonight. I’m just wondering what the deal with this is and if there is any truth to it. If so, it seems like something we should know about, and I wondered if it was something you all would consider looking into for an article.
My answer: Yes, I can see where a water line running through an EPA Superfund site could be less than ideal, and maybe newsworthy.
Real answer: It looks like this is not the case.
The bypass line that is carrying the non-potable water to Asheville’s water system comes out of the North Fork Reservoir, in Black Mountain, then into Asheville. This is not close to the old Chemtronics plant, which manufactured explosives and chemical weapons and was placed on the EPA Superfund National Priorities List in 1983 because of contaminated groundwater and soil from waste disposal practices.
The 535-acre Superfund site is closer to the Bee Tree Reservoir and William DeBruhl Water Treatment Plant in Swannanoa, but still not that close, said Clay Chandler, spokesperson for the Asheville Water Resources Department.
“The old Chemtronics facility was at the head of Old Bee Tree Road,” Chandler said. “William DeBruhl Water Treatment Plant is at the head of Bee Tree Road.”
“The Chemtronics property is a couple of watersheds and several miles from DeBruhl,” Chandler continued. “No transmission mains or any other public water mains traverse that property.”
In all, the Chemtronics property comprises 1,065 acres and remains an active EPA cleanup site.
Earlier this month, the agency posted about it and the effects of Tropical Storm Helene on the Superfund page devoted to Chemtronics.
“On Oct. 2, 2024, local site personnel were able to conduct an initial inspection of impacts to the Chemtronics Superfund Site caused by Hurricane Helene,” the EPA stated. “Based on that site visit and several thereafter, impacts to the site were all physical in nature and have no adverse effect on the environmental protective conditions at the site.”
Lots of trees were down and roads damaged, but, “Access is being actively reestablished, including collaboration with local utilities,” the EPA stated.
“The protective caps that cover all of the disposal areas in the Front Valley and Back Valley remain intact,” the EPA said. “All of the capped disposal areas exist in upland areas of the property and they were not inundated by flood waters. The constituents present in groundwater at the site remain contained within the site boundaries and there is no off-site migration.”
The remediation systems in place do not require electricity to operate, so the power outage was not an issue.
“The floodwaters that traversed the site were in the lowland areas near Bee Tree Creek, and no impacted soils or other media was transported off-site during the storm event,” the EPA stated. “Based on this information, no offsite sampling is scheduled at this time. Routine monitoring will continue at the site.”
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 16:37:00
(The Center Square) – Judicial warfare is eroding the confidence in Americans’ justice system leaving a blight on justice itself, says a North Carolina congresswoman who leads the Rules Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C, is speaking out against judges blocking the president’s decisions as granted in the Constitution ahead of a Tuesday congressional hearing.
“As of late, we have certainly seen a slew of rulings by rogue judges that surpass their own constitutional authority,” she said in a post to social media Monday afternoon. “This is judicial warfare in the flesh. If it is not remedied in a commonsense and expeditious fashion, these exercises in partisanship will do further irreparable damage to the nation and to the confidence of Americans in our justice system.”
More than a dozen orders from President Donald Trump – more than in the entire time Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W. Bush served as presidents – have been thwarted or attempted to be blocked. Among the judges in the spotlight is U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a pivotal figure in deportation of people accused of being in gangs in addition to just being named to preside in a case involving military operations and a messaging app.
Boasberg, appointed by Bush to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 2002, was nominated to the federal bench by Obama and confirmed in the Senate 96-0 in 2012.
Boasberg on Wednesday issued and on Friday extended a temporary restraining order that prevents Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport people believed to be part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. A hearing, Judicial Overreach and Constitutional Limits on the Federal Courts, is at 10 a.m. Tuesday to be conducted jointly by the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet, and the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government from within the Judiciar Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
California Republican Darrell Issa is chairman of the former committee, Texas’ Chip Roy the latter. North Carolina Democrat Deborah Ross is a minority member of the former; North Carolina Republican Mark Harris is a majority member of the latter.
Witnesses scheduled include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Cindy Romero, a victim of criminal activity believed perpetrated by Tren de Aragua in Aurora, Colo. Also on the invite list are witnesses from the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.
Other federal judges drawing fire from supporters of the president include Biden appointees Amir Ali, Loren AliKhan, Deborah Boardman, Angel Kelley and Brendan Hurson; Obama appointees Paul Engelmayer, Amy Berman Jackson, John McConnell and Leo Sorokin; Bush appointee Joseph Laplante; Bill Clinton appointee William Alsup; and Ronald Reagan appointees John Coughenhour and Royce Lamberth.
“Without question,” Foxx said, “exceeding constitutional mandates as a matter of judicial philosophy does nothing more than blight justice itself.”
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 15:21:00
(The Center Square) – Wildfires continued to burn Monday in the Carolinas, though a sign of optimism arose with a burning ban lifted in 41 South Carolina counties and measured rainfall in both states.
Largest of the fires is Table Rock in Pickens and Greenville counties of South Carolina. The Black Cove fire is burning in North Carolina’s Polk and Henderson counties, the Rattlesnake fire is burning Haywood County, and the Alarka 5 fire is in Swain County.
South Carolina’s Horry County at the Atlantic Ocean and North Carolina border, and the northwestern counties of Spartanburg, Greenville, Pickens and Oconee remain under a burning ban. In North Carolina, all 100 counties have a ban in effect.
The Table Rock fire size is about 13,191 acres in South Carolina and 574 in North Carolina, the Forestry Commission of the former said. Containment is about 30%.
The Persimmon Ridge fire is 2,078 acres in size with 64% containment. Rain Sunday into Monday measured nearly 1 inch.
The Covington Drive Fire in Myrtle Beach is about 85% contained and in mop-up and strengthened firebreaks stage.
In North Carolina, the Black Cove complex of fires are 7,672 acres in size. It includes the Black Cove (3,502 acres, 36% contained), Deep Woods (3,971 acres, 32% contained) and Fish Hook (199 acres, 100% contained) fires. Rainfall overnight into Monday helped the battle.
by Jane Winik Sartwell, Carolina Public Press March 31, 2025
Corn farmers on food stamps and taking second jobs. Equipment not being repaired. Debts going unpaid.
That’s the reality for many North Carolina corn growers this spring.
Last year was the worst season for the crop in state history, according to Ronnie Heiniger, a corn specialist at N.C. State. Drought wiped out acre after acre in eastern North Carolina last summer. Hurricane Helene devastated any crops left in the mountains.
Normally a $750 million dollar business, corn yielded only $250 million in 2024.
The economic cost to farmers — and their communities — couldn’t be more serious. And with a moderate drought stretching into the early days of this planting season, some are worried about more bad luck to come.
Corn is particularly sensitive to drought due to the crop’s very short window of pollination: This critical period of growth is just a few days long. In North Carolina, that vulnerable timeframe usually happens in June. If no rain falls during those days, corn will simply not continue to grow and yields will sharply decline.
“It was just about as bad as it could get (last season),” Heiniger recalled. “There’s no recovering from 60 days without rainfall. The mood among these farmers is very depressed. Some don’t know where to turn.”
But the N.C. House of Representatives is trying to help, hoping that the money allocated by the Corn Farmers Recovery Act, or HB 296, will be enough to keep the industry going.
The bill — which has yet to make it past the Appropriations Committee, the Rules Committee, the House and Senate — would transfer nearly $90 million from the State Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The money would go toward the creation of a 2024 Agricultural Disaster Corn Crop Loss Program, which corn farmers could apply to receive relief funds.
“To be honest, I don’t think most farmers thought the state was going to pay much attention to them,” Heiniger admitted. “This comes as a complete surprise.”
Corn farmers ‘at risk’
Corn is a summer staple on tables across North Carolina, but the crop also is necessary for feeding livestock and producing ethanol, which has a variety of uses. Sampson and Duplin counties, where pigs outnumber people 38 to 1, are home to the largest hog industries in the country. A shortage of feed could make that billion dollar business less profitable, too.
“I think a whole lot of farmers will be applying for this funding if it passes,” Zach Parker, an extension agent in Sampson County, told Carolina Public Press. “I don’t think devastation is understatement in the slightest. As for this summer, the only certainty is uncertainty. But I don’t think the corn industry is going anywhere. We have animals to feed.”
The bill would have the greatest economic impact in eastern North Carolina — the region with the largest, most valuable corn farms.
“In Wilson County, corn farmers have really been at risk,” said state Rep. Dante Pittman, a Democrat who serves Wilson and Nash counties and co-sponsored the Corn Farmers Recovery Act. “We saw an almost $4 million drop in income from corn in Wilson alone.
“The thing about this industry is that we don’t know what this year’s weather is going to bring. Anything we can do to prevent that loss from being devastating is necessary.”
Desperation down on the farm
With the cost of farming supplies high and crop commodity prices low, farmers are growing desperate.
“This bill will not only help farmers, but the farm communities that survive on selling fertilizer, chemicals, seeds, tractors and farm labor,” Heiniger explained. “It will help these rural communities where farmers are turning to food aid for their kids at school.”
The bill is geared toward those who grow corn, but since most farmers harvest a diverse set of crops, the money would in turn support production of soybeans, cotton, sweet potatoes and other North Carolina staples, according to Mike Yoder, an associate director of the College of Agriculture at N.C. State.
But some, like Rhonda Garrison, have concerns about the bill. Like, how will the relief funds be allocated? That’s something Garrison, director of the Corn Growers Association of North Carolina, wants to know.
“The bill is pretty ambiguous in terms of the formula for distributing the money,” Garrison contends. “I guess farmers will just have to apply for it and see what happens.”
But she doesn’t think the money will come too late to be useful.
“There were some farmers — overleveraged farmers who were already on the edge — that were done in completely by 2024,” Garrison said. “But not the majority. The potential money from this bill will likely go toward paying down debt.”
As planting season approaches, North Carolina corn farmers face difficult decisions about the future. There is a possibility the state will face some kind of natural disaster in 2025, whether it be hurricane, drought or continued fires.
“Us farmers rejoice in suffering because it produces character,” Heiniger said. “That’s what these farmers are trying to do: hold onto their character so they can get some hope and keep on going.”
