Gov. Josh Stein visited the new Asheville Regional Airport terminal on Monday to kick off a week-long campaign encouraging tourists from across the state to visit Western North Carolina, months after Hurricane Helene devastated much of the region.
Stein said he plans to spend each day this week doing things like whitewater rafting, hiking, mountain biking and visiting local restaurants.
“My wife Anna and I, the first lady, and I are here this week,” Stein told reporters. “We got up here on Friday. We’re going to stay here all week, going to different communities, highlighting different activities … here in Western North Carolina. Because we want the people of North Carolina to know, come here, you will have a fantastic time.”
He was joined by N.C. Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley and Greater Asheville Regional Airport Authority President and CEO Lew Bleiweis.
The leisure and hospitality industry in Western North Carolina was one of the hardest-hit parts of the economy after Helene. Stein said many people outside the region don’t realize how far the recovery has come in the nearly 10 months since the storm.
“And what we want is for people not to associate [our region with] the floods, the high-water mark, but to realize that water has receded, and people have come back and rebuilt, and they need our business,” he said.
Also on the governor’s list for this week are a visit to a summer camp and a pottery shop in Brevard.
Stein also visited UNC-Asheville Monday morning for a meeting with members of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Western North Carolina Recovery.
Matt Calabria, director of the Governor's Recovery Office for Western North Carolina (GROW NC), said 97% of the region’s public roads that were impacted by the storm are now accessible. The state has, so far, removed more than 14 million cubic yards of debris, both on land and in local waterways, Calabria noted.
“We’re still pushing to hopefully have substantial completion of the right-of-way and the waterway debris removal missions by close to the one-year mark,” which is late September, Calabria said.
He added that there has been “a tremendous amount of progress” despite some challenges presented by the region’s mountainous topography and, in some cases, as much as seven times the amount of debris than originally estimated in certain waterways.
Editor’s note: Asheville Regional Airport is a business sponsor of Blue Ridge Public Radio.
