Asheville Reboot

Asheville Reboot: Rebuilding Local Businesses After Hurricane Helene

• Brian Hamrick

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In this premiere episode, co-hosts Brian Hamrick and Alex Jarbo, co-owners of Engadine Inn & Cabins, share their firsthand experience navigating the devastation of Hurricane Helene and how their business became a vital part of the recovery effort in Western North Carolina.

Located in Candler, NC, just 15 minutes from downtown Asheville, Engadine served as a shelter, distribution hub, and rally point for Aerial Recovery and over 400 volunteers supporting the community.

We discuss:

  • What Engadine Inn & Cabins is and what makes it so unique
  • The impact of Hurricane Helene on local tourism and business
  • How Engadine became a lifeline for the community post-storm
  • The real story behind Asheville’s recovery—95% of the area is open and thriving
  • What this podcast will be about going forward: short-form interviews with local business owners rebuilding after the storm

💬 "People think Asheville is closed. It’s not. This town is open, alive, and rebuilding stronger than ever."

Learn More or Book Your Stay:
🌐 EngadineInnandCabins.com

Want to Be Featured?
If you’re a local Asheville business owner affected by Hurricane Helene, we want to hear from you. Reach out to Brian, Alex, or Ward via the Engadine website.

Follow Engadine:
📸 Instagram: @engadineinnandcabins
📘 Facebook: @engadineinnandcabins
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AshevilleReboot

Brian Hamrick:

Hi. Welcome to Asheville Reboot, a short form podcast sharing real stories from local business owners in Asheville and Western North Carolina who have been affected by Hurricane Helene and are building back stronger i'm Brian Hamrick, one of the owners of Engadine Inn and Cabins, which is located in Candler, North Carolina. 15 minutes from downtown Asheville. business partners with me, Alex Jarbo, also a co-owner of Engadine. Alex, you live in the area and your boots on the ground at Engadine. Also not joining us, but who will be joining us in the future is Ward Henderson, who has also been closely involved in managing day-to-day operations during our reboot. in this first episode, I want to introduce what this show is all about and give you a look inside our experience at Engadine the past year. Alex, why don't we start with you telling our audience what Engadine Inn and Cabins is, where it's located, how long we've owned it and how that's been going for us.

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

Yeah, Engadine is a historic bed and breakfast. The main house is a Queen Ann Victorian house built in 1885, which I believe is. Seven years older than the Biltmore Estate. It is on the National Historic Registry. The main house, which is what I'm sitting in right now, is six suites. And then there are six cabins on the property. The property also sits on 12 acres. With the cabins. And then we also have the, the wedding venue, a part of it as well. It backs up to Pisgah National Forest. So we practically have almost 360 degree view of mountain views. And then we also back up to Hominey creek, we do weddings, events, and everything. The property is just gorgeous. It's a historic vineyard as well. we've propagated the grapevine this year, to hopefully have be ready for grapes in a couple years.

Brian Hamrick:

Yeah, it's a fantastic property. You can find it on Airbnb. You can go to our direct booking website at https://www.engadineinnandcabins.com. We offer fly fishing packages. Retreat type things, massage, yoga, just a fantastic property with a great history. But let's talk about the hurricane. So tell us how, Engadine stepped up during the hurricane to kind of help out in the area.

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

Yeah, so hurricane happens the night of September 26th. Date is burned into most of the people who live here's brains. And for about two, three days, this whole area, had no electricity, no water. And there was no way to actually get out of our community because of all the trees that had fallen. Once I was able to get out here, I saw that actually Engadine. Because it sits right next to, a main road. Actually had electricity, water, and internet before even the hospital did, we actually brought a lot of our friends, here, that were affected by the hurricane that didn't have water, to the main house of Engadine, including my wife. We brought our dog with us as well. And then we got connected with Aerial Recovery, which is a nonprofit through, global Empowerment Mission, which is one of the largest, rescue NGOs, in the world. it started with them just wanting. A week, for about six to eight people. And over the course of five weeks, that evolved into over 400 volunteers, across hundreds of rescue missions. And then also our, event center was turned into a distribution center for all. Of the churches and further out communities in Western North Carolina that we couldn't just drive two hours, say five hours round trip to get supplies to. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of supplies, whether it be baby formula, feminine products. Food, everything, was donated to, Engadine and, aerial recovery, and then it was distributed the first couple weeks were very heavy in rescue missions. And then that slowly evolved into, clearing roads for insurance companies and whatnot, for insurance adjusters to be able to get out to people's homes so it was a very heavy five weeks, here at Engadine.

Brian Hamrick:

Hosting aerial recovery that they, it started off as kind of search and rescue and just. Get in and save people and save lives. then it became more of a kind of a rebuilding restoration

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

like a stabilization.

Brian Hamrick:

so we were very proud to host them. But since then, what's happened in Asheville, is the media coverage was so, intense that now everyone around the country thinks that Asheville is closed.

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

Right.

Brian Hamrick:

That could not be further from the truth, right? Because the truth is Asheville is open, we are back in business. And, what we're hearing when we talk to other businesses like ours or, businesses that aren't even like ours is that, businesses down because people think that it's not time to come back to Asheville. But the truth is, it. Is, and that's one of the reasons why we're hosting this podcast. We'll be talking to other businesses in the area about their experience and the aftermath of, of Hurricane Helene, how they're building back and, and the main message is to let people know Asheville and Western North Carolina. Is 95% back in business. There's plenty to do, plenty to see. And what you could do last summer at this time before the hurricane, you can do it this summer as well.

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

Yeah, the two biggest areas were just like Biltmore Village and the River Arts District, but even their rebuilding.

Brian Hamrick:

And Biltmore Village and River Arts District, a good portion of the River Arts District is still

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

Yep.

Brian Hamrick:

and in

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

Right,

Brian Hamrick:

definitely see where some of the devastation

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

right,

Brian Hamrick:

and, we're building

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

right.

Brian Hamrick:

So, Alex, what you and I and Ward will be doing is interviewing different business owners in the area and just, finding out how they are building back after the hurricane. I'm looking forward to doing that. we're just starting this podcast. I don't know if this is gonna be a weekly thing, a biweekly thing. It's really gonna depend on how many business owners we can get recorded on this show, but we're very excited to do this. we love Western North Carolina. There's so much going on and, any final thoughts before we wrap up? And we do intend to keep these episodes very short and to the point because the main message is, Hey, we're open. There's a lot to do here. Come visit us.

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

Yeah. When we reopened in March, we went super hyperlocal outside of just focusing on Airbnb, booking.com, Expedia and our website, we, Went to as many businesses as we could, that we thought would integrate well with Engadine, and that's who we're gonna be interviewing, a lot of those business owners have businesses that were affected. But, were also, good compliment to Engadine. We've been working with a lot of these vendors since February, March, even before the hurricane. we're super excited to do this.

Brian Hamrick:

One of the benefits of the hurricane was that we met a lot of other business owners

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

Right.

Brian Hamrick:

and have been able to strike relationships with them that are really lasting. I mean, we will be talking with Doug from Mountain Fly Anglers.

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

Yeah.

Brian Hamrick:

he's the one who leads guided fly fishing tours on our property on the creek

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

yeah.

Brian Hamrick:

be talking to Asheville Wellness Tours. They're the ones offering wellness experiences on our property.

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

Right.

Brian Hamrick:

if you're a business in Asheville and you wanna be featured. Reach out to us.

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

Absolutely.

Brian Hamrick:

reach, reach out to Alex, or myself or Ward, and we'll have that information in the show notes. And one thing that's really become clear during all this is that Alex, you and I are not alone in this. there are a lot of businesses in this area that were affected by Hurricane Helene and we're all working through the aftermath together. we are back in business though, and we wanted to create a platform to share the stories of all the businesses. this podcast is our way of saying that Asheville is still here. Western North Carolina is open for business, and there are incredible people behind these businesses who have worked very hard to come back. So thanks for listening, and if you want to follow along, you can subscribe on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcast. We'll also have a YouTube channel, probably a substack. You'll find us on Instagram, Facebook. we're gonna just wallpaper all of social media here, and you should definitely check us out on our website. EngadineInnandCabins.com and Engadine is E-N-G-A-D-I-N-E, and, if you're from outside the area and you wanna stay with us, we'd love to host you. We offer all kinds of great activities that you can do on our property or off the property. And, you know, we're looking forward to, to doing more of these episodes and sharing more about the businesses in, in Asheville. So thank you very much for being part of the reboot.

Alex Jarbo- Engadine Inn and Cabins:

Thanks everyone.