By phone from her office, just steps from Main Street, the mayor of Brevard, North Carolina, shared the pain of the local businesses down the street.
For example, the hand-crafted gift shop called “Local Color” is accustomed to thousands of dollars in sales during an average weekend, Mayor Maureen Copelof said. But during one weekend after Hurricane Helene, “All they sold was one bar of soap.”
The nearby seafood restaurant was so inundated with water from the hurricane floods, Copelof said the owner initially told her, “I’m not even sure if I should try to rebuild.”
Brevard was among the dozens of North Carolina communities devastated by Hurricane Helene. But the crisis has morphed in October and November, into a painful and uncertain wait for federal aid that seems to have stalled.
“These businesses and these home owners are desperate and I am worried,” Copelof told CBS News. “October is our biggest month for tourism, and sales were down 50 to 75%.”
Helene ransacked western North …