Meadows of Dan was not a direct causality of Hurricane Helene, but the merchants there stand to lose much of their tourism business during what many consider their peak season after the Blue Ridge Parkway was recently closed due to storm damage.
“Crews continue their assessment of the damage from Hurricane Helene. To assist with recovery efforts, the National Park Service (NPS) has deployed its Eastern Incident Management Team, which brings specialized skills and resources to support the parkway with employee emergency needs, emergency stabilization of affected park resources, and damage assessments,” a post on social media stated.
Patrick County Economic Development and Tourism Director James Houchins said that he’s devastated about the closure because he knows it will have an economic impact on the county
“The businesses that need that income that comes in time of the year, it’s really going to hurt them. I’m really hurt by the closing, but I also understand the necessity behind it,” he said.
Houchins said the NPS maintains the entire parkway throughout North Carolina and Virginia.
“What I would just like people to understand is they’re trying to get those resources, especially in around the Asheville area and the other areas in Southwest Virginia. Those resources are going to be tapped for a while,” he said.
While it’s sad to have the parkway close due to the financial and economic impacts it will cause, Houchins said parkway staff must also perform regular maintenance. “This is only going to put them further behind on getting work and cleanup done.
“I understand that as we see it the parkway may have areas that are open and accessible, but again they have to look at it in the larger frame and larger scope, and have to be concerned about having limited personnel in one area versus another area when the need itself is at this time more critical for those areas that were definitely hit,” Houchins said.
The effects of the shutdown are already being felt in Meadows of Dan, Houchins said. When talking with Trinity Goad, of Poor Farmers Market, Houchins said he was told the influx of tourists normally seen at this time of year is down.
“It’s going to affect us economically because we have on average about 10,000 visitors that would visit the Blue Ridge Parkway monthly. With the parkway being closed, the numbers will show that the devastation is going to definitely be one that we will see now and ongoing until they are able to” reopen the entire parkway, he said.
While he doesn’t have an idea of how long it will last, Houchins said it could be two or three months before it reopens. “Again, it’s because they are going to need the resources, that were already limited. They’re going to have all those resources to take care of the other aspects of the parkway” which were damaged. “You have to look at the bigger picture, and not just one cluster.”
Houchins added he’s already hearing discussions about the government offering low-income loans to help with financial distress. He currently has no timeframe on how long it may take for that to transpire.
“But again, we have to take care of the immediate need, and that is to make sure that those who have been physically adversely affected by” Hurricane Helene “get the help that they need. I know they’re going to do as much as they can as quickly as they can,” he said.
Felecia Shelor, owner of Poor Farmers’ Market and Concord Corner Store, said she’s concerned for small business owners in the area because an enormous part of their business is parkway travelers.
“In our case in Meadows of Dan, there’s also hundreds of growers and suppliers and artists and craftspeople, so there’s a lot of people whose livelihoods are going to be affected by the parkway closing down,” she said.
Shelor, who added that she has a hard time expressing how she feels about the closure, believes it will force some merchants out of business, and has the potential to lead to the total collapse of small businesses in the area.
“I don’t think it’s going to force us out of business because we’re well established. We have a lot of repeat business. Our businesses are a destination for a lot of customers, I don’t think we’re going to go under, but I’m concerned that others will. It’s definitely going to cost jobs and hurt other people that supply us,” she said.
As a business community, Shelor said she and others have been trying to get in touch with representatives to ask them to reopen the parkway through Virginia.
“There’s about 200 miles of the Parkway in Virginia that wasn’t affected by the storm. There’s no storm destruction through Virginia. We’re hoping that our leaders would have the parkway open in Virginia because of us, all of the little towns along the parkway,” she said.
While they’ve scheduled a meeting with U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith’s staff on October 23 in Stuart, Shelor said this meeting will come too late.
“The problem is October is the very peak of our tourist season. Everybody’s dependent on the October leaf season to make enough money to carry us all through the winter, and everybody does this,” she said. “It’s kind of like you’re making hay. When the sun shines, we make our money in October and that carries us through the dead of the winter. If we don’t make the money in October, we don’t have money to carry us through the winter.”
Griffith said his office has been in contact with the NPS “to impress upon them the urgency of addressing any issues preventing the Blue Ridge Parkway from opening and providing critical access to the areas it services, including Bedford and Patrick counties, particularly places like Meadows of Dan. NPS shared that their assessment crews are finishing their analysis and will provide an update once finished. I am hopeful that will be sooner than later.
“I will continue to press NPS to work quickly in order to minimize the disruption to the safety and welfare of the affected communities,” Griffith added.
Shelor said merchants in the area are already feeling an impact. Usually, parking lots of Meadows of Dan businesses are full this time of year. “Now, we pull in and generally there might be three cars, so that gives you an idea of how that’s impacting us,” she said.
Shelor added Meadows of Dan was already impacted by the U.S. 58 expansion project through the mountain. The parkway closure “is another serious, serious blow,” she said.
Leslie Shelor, owner of Poppy’s, said she understands the Parkway’s closure, and understands it basically comes down to manpower, and the lack of rangers that can be assigned to cover the parkway through Virginia. However, she’s still upset about it.
“It is definitely going to affect our business,” Leslie Shelor said. “I know it’s complicated and I know things are horrible in other places. We were so fortunate, entire towns were wiped out, we were so fortunate to be on the edge of the storm,” she said.
In the early 2010s, Leslie Shelor said national parks had huge budget cuts which resulted in thousands of jobs being lost. “So, they don’t really have the manpower to keep up with things. What they’ve probably done is move everybody out because there’s so much devastation” in areas of the parkway that run through North Carolina.
“I don’t know for sure, but I assume that’s what’s going on. Eventually they’ll wind their way back up here and get everything straightened out, but who knows how long that’s going to take,” she said.
Leslie Shelor said she’s already feeling the effects of the closure. She estimated her profits are down about 10 percent compared to what they were the same time last year.
“We’ll have to see what the weekend does,” she said.
However, Leslie Shelor isn’t worried about being forced to close her doors.
“I’ve been here 20 years, we’ve weathered some stuff,” she said with a chuckle. “I am worried about some other businesses that haven’t been here as long, and particularly the food service – there’s such a narrow margin of profit for them.”
The NPS website posts updates about its progress at www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/hurricane-helene.htm.
