This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
The tourism industry is one of the top sources of employment in Buncombe County. So when Helene caused everyone from nature guides to restaurant and hotel workers to lose months of work, not everyone returned when things calmed down. According to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, about 16,000 people left the workforce in the 16 hardest-hit counties of Western North Carolina between April 2023 and April 2026.
Climate disasters are disruptive for every aspect of economic life, from housing and insurance markets to movement of goods to infrastructure to jobs. Helene was no different. The Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina last week released a plan for Western North Carolina’s economic recovery. One of the issues addressed in the plan is the instability of the region’s post-disaster workforce.
Sharon Decker is the senior adviser for long-term recovery at the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina. She said the interruptions to hospitality and recreation, in particular, have caused long-term disruptions in employment for area workers.
“We're actually losing workforce,” Decker said. “People are leaving because they don't have jobs. The job they have or perhaps they need to find housing with family or they simply take this as an opportunity to relocate.”
Kris Smith is lead researcher at Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit community development research group. She told BPR that basic infrastructure, childcare access, workforce, and government capacity are all basic scaffolding for a post-disaster economic recovery.
“Without them you can just have gaps and you get this kind of downward spiraling of economies because the foundation has been gutted by the disaster,” Smith said.
Smith said, private investment is important, but investment in public social services that may be less profitable is also vital. That means providing services like childcare and eldercare, in addition to making investments like small business loans, she said.
In particular, Smith said, tourism-dependent rural economies, like those in much of Western North Carolina, often don’t have much else to fall back on when the economic lifeline is interrupted. As small businesses shut down and home rebuilding moves slowly, people can quickly find themselves in desperate straits.
Currently, the Economic Recovery Plan includes provisions for multiple types of investment in the region's workforce. Some proposals involve incentives investments, like in affordable housing and small business grants. Other proposals in the plan hope to catalyze new growth in the textile industry. Still others point to education as a major pipeline for good jobs, which means providing support for community colleges and universities in growing sectors like healthcare, forestry, and biotechnology, among other things.
According to Decker, the plan includes investment in affordable housing, education and childcare, and healthcare worker training.
“It's not just one space that was impacted,” Decker said. “It's massive. So, I think we have to think in a larger term and a bolder vision than maybe we historically had.”
