They bought the town’s oldest restaurant and renovated it. Then Helene destroyed it.
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Hurricane Helene Aftermath
Hurricane Helene swept across the Southeast, causing major flooding and destruction throughout North Carolina. Here is ongoing coverage from The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer about Hurricane Helene and the aftermath, particularly in Western North Carolina.
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When the brand-new owners of Helen’s Restaurant, Donna Stafford and her mom, Mary Stafford, posted a sneak peek of the Bakersville diner’s remodel in July 2023 on Facebook, they couldn’t have known that just over a year later, it would all be gone.
Of course they couldn’t. None of us could.
Bakersville is a small town — population 1,757, per the 2020 census — in Western North Carolina. Its nickname is the “Gateway to Roan Mountain,” and it is the county seat of Mitchell County.
The town has experienced flooding before — including the infamous Flood of 1977 and the Flood of 1998 — but it had never experienced anything like it would with the devastation of Hurricane Helene.
Decades of memories at Helen’s Restaurant
There are only a few restaurants in Bakersville, and Helen’s was its oldest.
In our first conversation, Donna couldn’t remember which year it opened — she would have to look at the newspaper article framed on the restaurant’s wall to confirm — and that’s not an option anymore.
She then texted the daughter of the owners who sold her the restaurant (yes, Helen’s daughter), who confirmed the restaurant opened in 1956. The Mitchell County Historical Society said it started as a drive-in.
Helen Hopson, along with her husband, Wiley, owned and operated the restaurant from 1961 until she died in 1996. It was a town fixture for decades — and for a time, it was the only eatery in town, Donna said.
Helen’s sits along NC-226, one of those winding mountain roads surrounded by lush green fields, houses on hills and peaks off in the distance. Take a left at the flashing light in downtown if you’re coming in from Spruce Pine, then you’ve found it — it’s on your left.
Behind the restaurant, a walking path runs along Cane Creek, which feeds into North Toe River. It’s part of the town’s Creekwalk project, which also includes a playground, sports fields and more.
Renovating a relic
Donna and Mary purchased Helen’s Restaurant in 2023, then got to work.
“We completely remodeled the restaurant with focus on maintaining a cozy, small-town community vibe, keeping the counter barstools,” Donna said.
They were putting in 16-hour days. Mary is 80. And Donna, who is 60, became ill just before the restaurant’s reopening. She was diagnosed with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Lyme disease, meningitis, Bell’s palsy, myocarditis and other co-infections.
But all the labor felt worth it. The Stafford family goes back several generations in Mitchell County. Donna was born here; her brothers, too. It wasn’t just the town’s legacy they were investing in — it was personal.
Helen’s reopened in August 2023
With the community cheerleading their efforts the whole way, they reopened the restaurant in August 2023. A Rhododendron Dining Room with a collage wall celebrated Bakersville’s annual Rhododendron Festival. A black bear on a clock proclaimed the restaurant was “on mountain time.” Joe Cole, a Mitchell County native who worked at Helen’s in 1965, gifted the restaurant a signed dulcimer that he made using locally sourced wood.
For the next 13+ months, the restaurant served up hearty meals, including impressively sized double cheeseburgers, hot ham and cheese sandwiches and Southern chopped steak. Breakfast was available on the weekends, and Saturdays were for live music.
At times, Helen’s needed to close unexpectedly due to staff illness, including Donna’s. These short-notice closings were posted to the restaurant’s Facebook page, and customers would comment with well wishes and shares, getting the word out.
“We were just past our first year of operations and were not making a profit yet, putting every dime towards salaries and food vendors,” Donna said.
The week of the hurricane
On Wednesday, Sept. 25, a powerful storm came through. “The basement flooded like never before,” Donna said.
Photos of the damage show freezers knocked on their sides, food spilled out and covered in sludge. A crumpled cardboard container in a puddle on the floor of the basement displays “KEEP FROZEN” in block letters under a layer of cracked mud. Fresh broccoli florets in bags surround other food, including a bread-and-butter pickles jar. Boxes lie everywhere, mud lines are on the walls and splattered on the side of the stairs. A mop bucket has surrendered, turned on its side and coated in the slushy mess.
The basement flooded 4-5 feet that day, Donna said. “We obliviously closed Thursday and spent the day throwing away the lost food and scooping out as much water and mud as possible.”
When she went to bed Thursday night, she knew Helene was on its way, and she figured there would be more flooding. “I was exhausted and already devastated from our losses from Wednesday’s storm.”
She pulled up her restaurant security cameras from home, where she watched helplessly as the basement flooded, again. She watched her freezers fall over, again. The outside cameras showed the water even higher than Wednesday.
She watched until she couldn’t watch anymore — until 5:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 27, when her power went out.
Then Hurricane Helene arrived.
Hurricane Helene
Hurricane Helene was particularly hard on Bakersville. Roads were decimated. Flash floods destroyed everything the water could reach.
“We had a tropical storm with hurricane-force gusts as the remnant eyewall moved through and collapsed; these winds lasted well over an hour. We are still working on an overall wind analysis, but Mount Mitchell gusted to over 100 mph, and with 20-30” of rain,” said Trisha D. Palmer, Warning Coordination Meteorologist in NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC.
“This was an incredibly devastating event; absolutely nothing that anyone in this area has ever experienced (in recorded history),” Palmer told us.
Bakersville’s park was demolished and so were the playground and soccer fields. Downtown was completely flooded, along with the businesses there.
And Donna was trapped in her home, which had also been damaged in the storm. “I had no way of getting my car out and no means of communication.”
Three days later, her brother was able to make his way to her. He had stopped to check on the restaurant and showed her photos of its damage. A wall of the restaurant’s lower level was gone, along with six freezers, all the food, a washer/dryer and a walk-in cooler.
Even the supports holding up the two-story building were gone.
Three days after that, Donna was finally able to get her car out and go see her businesses — and her town — for herself.
“It was shocking. It still is. My shock set in even before I arrived at the restaurant. Roads are gone, forests are no longer forests as trees are all lying down in a tangled mess. Electricity poles are broken in half and lying on top of what is left of homes, buildings and roads.”
And without its support beams, the restaurant’s building could collapse at any time.
On Oct. 5, Helen’s Restaurant was officially condemned. “We are no longer allowed to enter the building. Praying for us all,” the Staffords wrote on Facebook.
Donna said inspectors told her she will never be allowed inside again — it’s not safe. That means the newspaper article about Helen’s and its opening date will forever hang on the wall, but with no more diners to read it while waiting for their orders of biscuits & gravy or chicken & dumplings.
Donna’s nephew started a Go Fund Me campaign for the Stafford women, asking for a modest $5,000 to help them recoup just a tiny bit of their life savings, which they had poured into the restaurant renovation just a little over a year ago. “Hopefully in the future, they will be able to rebuild but unfortunately it will not be in this same building,” her nephew wrote.
Some of the town’s other local restaurants were also damaged or closed temporarily due to lack of power and water, including Mammie’s Breakfast Barn and Southern Ridge Cafe. Bonnie & Clyde’s, which has been open since the 1970s and is also on NC-226 closer to North Toe River, experienced flooding. “The restaurant is still standing; however, the cleanup needed is overwhelming,” its Go Fund Me campaign stated.
What happens next at Helen’s Restaurant?
The truth is, Donna told us doesn’t know what will happen next.
If she gets anything from insurance, she told us it may only be enough to pay off her mortgage, she said.
But even if she could rebuild Helen’s Restaurant, it could not be on the same property, she said. What would that look like? She would need funds to buy land, build a new restaurant, purchase new equipment, replace lost food …
And on top of all of the damage: “I am very ill so not sure how the future looks.”
Right now, Donna is spending her days trying to cope with the day-to-day tasks that Helene made difficult, including figuring out a massive amount of paperwork, all while battling her illnesses. She had no power, water or internet until a few days ago. She communicated with CharlotteFive from the fire department or a showering and laundry facility.
“There are times when I begin to let anxiety reach onto my soul,” she said. “How am I going to survive financially? I can’t work a normal job somewhere else now because I’m bedridden some days and won’t be able to show up for another job. How will I get my medications? How will I pay for my doctor appointments? How will I pay my rent, electric, Wi-Fi, phone, car insurance, gas or food?
But right now, the neighbors, like in all of the small towns across Western North Carolina, are taking care of each other. On week one, a woman who was new to the area walked up to Donna’s house to check on her, which is how they met for the first time. They became fast friends.
This is a community, among many other communities, that have lost so much.
And in Bakersville, North Carolina, one of those permanent losses may ultimately end up being the 68-year-old restaurant.
“But then I pray and am reminded of the losses that are so much greater than mine. Loss of life. One of my employee’s grandfathers was swept away,” she said. He didn’t make it.
“Another employee’s parent’s house was washed away, and she and her parents are sleeping in a tent. So many in the community lost lives and so many more are still missing.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify information about winds and rainfall totals at nearby Mount Mitchell.
This story was originally published October 16, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "They bought the town’s oldest restaurant and renovated it. Then Helene destroyed it.."
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