(The Center Square) – A group of residents and elected officials from the hurricane ravaged Swannanoa area on Tuesday thanked the North Carolina House of Representatives for passing a relief package and urged the Senate to quickly follow suit.

“Western Carolina cannot wait for more aid,” said Rep. Lindsey Prather, D-Buncombe.

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Jody Dunning, owner of a barbecue restaurant in Swannanoa along with her husband for the last 18 years, told the story of losing everything when Hurricane Helene hit last fall.

The couple had to climb over debris and cars to get to their restaurant after the storm went through.

“It was unrecognizable,” she recalled. “There was 8 feet of water in our building with a couple of feet of mud in different parts of the building. We lost our entire kitchen for our restaurant which obviously is integral.”

They lost the 25-foot longer smoker that was used to cook the pork.

“We have months before we open again as we still put our restaurant back together,” she said. “It’s piece by piece. And it has been devastating.”

The couple has lost about $750,000 in income since Helene hit. They have already paid several hundred thousand dollars for repairs, and still have $150,000 to $200,000 to finish the work.

This past weekend started the 36th week of recovery from the storm that claimed the lives of 107 in North Carolina, 236 across seven states, and did an estimated $60 billion in damage in the Tarheel State.

“What we look out at every day is destroyed houses that are still empty,” Dunning said. “One of our big concerns is the community and making sure the community is built back so that they can support the businesses and that the businesses are built back so that they can support the community.”

Jeanie Summer is a former college professor who now owns Hidden River Events, a wedding venue, on 20 acres in Swannanoa.

“I took every dime of my savings and every dime of money that was loaned to me to buy the farm,” she said.

In 2024, the business, which included seven vacations homes, generated $2.6 million in gross revenue.

Flooding from Helene destroyed two vacation homes, a flower shop, flower gardens and most of the event venue.

This year’s revenue has dropped to $89,000, mostly from renting the remaining vacation homes to relief workers who are removing debris in the area.

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She has received about $35,000 in grants and tapped her retirement funds to rebuild.

“I’m here to say that here is just one little business in Swannanoa,” she said. “If you extrapolate that number, you can just tell how big the economic impact is in Western North Carolina.”