Shelby Tramel had only owned Old Orchard Creek General Store in Lansing for little more than a year when Hurricane Helene did what hurricanes never do. The storm left Florida, swept through Georgia, dropped a year’s worth of rain on western North Carolina, and flood waters took everything. Now she’s rebuilding. | Photography by Ken Robinson
EDITOR’S NOTE: Hurricane Helene took southern Appalachia by surprise in September and changed the landscape and region irretrievably in a thousand-year flood. The long recovery includes many beloved small businesses and the livelihoods fueling local economies from Asheville to Boone. The grief these communities feel has turned to action and, in turn, into stories of hope.
Shelby expected rain that day, which is nothing new for the region. She opened as usual, and even served espresso drinks to a few regulars who’d arrived through a gentle shower. Ray’s Weather had spoken of the storm with a somber tone, but few others had said a word. It was Florida and parts of eastern Georgia that had been warned about Hurricane Helene.
A few hours later, though, the wind began lashing trees outside. Then the heavy rain came down on saturated earth from the storm hovering over the mountains the four days before. By the afternoon, Big Horse Creek began to swell and so did the creek run alongside Shelby’s shop.
GOFUNDME: Help Rebuild The Old Orchard Creek General Store
When Lansing, North Carolina, started to flood, Old Orchard Creek General Store filled with water in less than an hour. She scrambled to save what she could–expensive paintings, the handmade goods from local artisans–but she could only watch helpless as much of the heavy equipment floated through the space. She rushed through the water and out the doors.
In late 2023, Shelby Tramel was given the opportunity to be the owner of the historic store in Lansing, North Carolina. She visited the area back in 2020 on a foggy August day in search of a blueberry farm, Orchard Creek Farm, owned by longtime Lansing residents Johnny Burleson and Walter Clark.
“It was breathtaking,” she said. “I was kind of in shock.”
A New Start in the Mountains
When she returned to Raleigh she was left with a feeling she couldn’t shake–she’d fallen in love with the place. It wasn’t even a year later that she found herself back there–but this time at Johnny’s and Walter’s invitation who’d asked her to join them and other friends in opening the store in the middle of town.
That was how Old Orchard Creek General Store came to be, and for several years now it has been a surprise to that area of Ashe County. Fine art hanging from the walls, Italian wine filling shelves, and a full service espresso bar in a store you’d expect to be filled with the dust of feed grain.
“We are in a very rural environment and what you find when you walk in is not what you expect,” she said. More than just the charm of the OOCGS and the Lansing community, it was “a place for me to fall softly among people who I loved and cared about and who loved and cared about me as well.”
“A situation like this can be seen as an opportunity to come back stronger if everyone can rally around that same vision.”
“Lansing is made up of very real people with real struggles and histories and a lot of culture deeply embedded here,” she said. “It’s welcoming for everybody. It doesn’t matter your background. It doesn’t matter how much money you have. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing or what your politics are.”
Rebuilding After the Heartbreak of Helene
For days Shelby said she grieved when she thought of what the store and the community had looked like just a day before.
“I grieved coming down and meeting the regulars. I grieved the beautiful space that Johnny and Walter had created that I love too,” Shelby said. “But even in that moment of grieving, it was never an option for me not to get back up and rebuild.”
After that she got to work. Almost immediately, a GoFundMe page was launched by one of her most loyal customers. Johnny Burleson.
Funds began to trickle in, businesses in other communities began to donate equipment, and a plan to rebuild was set in motion as anyone willing to help jumped into to clean up, tear out, and replace the devastated interior of the store.
Slideshow
“If I didn’t have these people reaching out, who knows how long it would take,” she said.
“Lansing is already a thriving place and it was on a path to thrive even more before the storm,” she said. “I think that’s what we all hope for Lansing. We want this community to move forward. A situation like this can be seen as an opportunity to come back stronger if everyone can rally around that same vision. I actually believe it’s possible that in one year Lansing could be even better than it was before this disaster.”
At this rate, it’s possible Old Orchard Creek will take its first customer by year’s end. Shelby is pretty sure she knows who it’ll be walking through the door that day.
“Johnny Burleson without a doubt,” she says. “It better be!”
