NORTH CAROLINA — Summit Coffee CEO Brian Helfrich got a shocking text on Sept. 27 as Hurricane Helene ravaged western North Carolina. The Davidson-based company’s location in Asheville’s River Arts District was gone.
There were photos of the French Broad River flooding, the café's wall collapsing, and then the water just continued to rise.
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“The entire structure was completely submerged,” Helfrich says. “As far as we can tell, it’s completely destroyed.”
The RAD location opened as a corporate store in 2017 and transitioned to a franchise-owned café in summer 2022. Helfrich says it is Summit’s second-busiest café. But the loss is just one part of a devastating hit to the Asheville community.
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VIDEO: ‘We rebuild better’: Biltmore Village facing long road to recovery after Helene
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