Ben’s Backdraft BBQ Serves WNC After Hurricane Helene

[00:00:02] What you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is The MESH.

[00:00:12] When Hurricane Helene swept into Florida September 26th and then into the Carolinas, millions of people lost water and power service.

[00:00:20] Others lost everything in landslides and floods that washed away roads, severed lines of communication, and cut off the lifelines to civilization for rural mountain people.

[00:00:30] Rescue, relief, recovery efforts, they rushed into the region and stories of heroism and hope quickly emerged.

[00:00:39] Neighbors across North Carolina and the entire Southeast committed themselves to being part of the solution.

[00:00:44] And one of those people working hard on those front lines of rescue and relief is Ben Hooper, a member of the fire service and the owner of, operator of Ben's Backdraft BBQ, which is based in Waynesville,

[00:00:56] a town sitting just west of some of those areas hardest hit by Helene and all that rain. Ben, welcome back to the podcast.

[00:01:03] Yeah, thanks for having me.

[00:01:05] Yeah, and we're really excited to welcome you back again on The Low & Slow Barbecue Show to talk about your experience and how you've been helping,

[00:01:12] some of the things that you've been seeing during the past few weeks since that storm.

[00:01:17] A quick introduction, an invitation rather to visit our audience.

[00:01:22] Everybody visit us at LowSlowBBQShow.com.

[00:01:25] You can read recent blogs and subscribe to our barbecue newsletter, The Low Down.

[00:01:30] It's LowSlowBBQShow.com.

[00:01:32] You can also find a library of our podcast interviews with barbecue pit people and pit masters all across the Carolinas.

[00:01:39] That includes our conversation with Ben and his business, Ben's Backdraft BBQ.

[00:01:43] We learned all about the background of his barbecue business.

[00:01:46] But again, today we're going to talk with him a little bit about how that business has fared in the wake of all that mess and catastrophe in the Carolinas.

[00:01:54] So Ben, I'll just kind of let everybody know we're recording this on October the 23rd.

[00:01:59] So it's here about a month after the storm.

[00:02:02] Tell me a little bit about the state of everything in your business where you are today.

[00:02:07] Yeah, so we lie kind of right between.

[00:02:11] We're actually at a brand new location.

[00:02:13] We just debuted it this year.

[00:02:16] Again, we have, you know, obviously two food trailers that we operate out of and then a concrete building that serves as our commissary.

[00:02:24] So where that lays is right directly in between Maggie Valley, North Carolina and Waynesville, North Carolina.

[00:02:30] So we're right on US 19, one of the major highways going into Maggie Valley, Cherokee area.

[00:02:38] So if you've ever went to the Cherokee casino, you've probably traveled on the road where our building lays.

[00:02:44] So that's kind of where we're at in the geolocation of everything.

[00:02:48] And I kind of feel like we're right on that western portion of where the storm hit.

[00:02:53] So and in saying that, we were three inches away from getting flooded here at our building.

[00:02:59] Wow.

[00:03:00] And, you know, or let's just say a couple inches away from getting flooded.

[00:03:04] We have a very small stream behind our building here and the water rose about 20 feet from where it lays normally.

[00:03:12] It's normally about a little stream that's about two feet wide.

[00:03:15] And it rose up and actually came into our parking lot and almost got in the building.

[00:03:22] And it was almost like there was this little circle that was, you know, around our stuff.

[00:03:28] And we were salvaged by the grace of God is all I can say.

[00:03:34] That's the only thing that I can explain.

[00:03:37] Definitely a blessing.

[00:03:37] Yeah, for sure.

[00:03:38] Well, so tell me kind of, you know, I want to talk a little bit about what's what you got going on right now and what's coming up here in the early part of November.

[00:03:45] But, you know, give me a little bit of an understanding of what the relief and the recovery conditions are like again in those sort of the harder hit areas.

[00:03:51] Because I know you're into the Asheville area and into the Buncombe County and that and some of your meal service now.

[00:03:56] So first, just tell me about the status of things there and how things look and how recovery is coming along.

[00:04:02] Yeah.

[00:04:03] So there's a there's a really good resource on several social medias that have a have a list of towns that are open.

[00:04:10] So if you're looking to come to Western North Carolina, there are towns here in Western North Carolina that are accepting visitors and they want you more than ever now to come visit because they've been hurting for the past three weeks.

[00:04:24] You know, a simple example of those towns are, you know, Silva, Cherokee, Waynesville, you know, essentially anything west of Waynesville is is semi OK.

[00:04:38] I don't want to speak for all of the western part of North Carolina, but it kind of seems that that is where the storm started to slow down.

[00:04:45] It looks like where it started to dump the heaviest amount of rain and and there are some extremely hard hit hard hit areas.

[00:04:54] And a list of those are, you know, Asheville obviously got hit really hard.

[00:05:00] Burnsville, Black Mountain, Swan and Noah, Spruce Pine.

[00:05:05] Those towns are not open.

[00:05:07] And and and it's going to be a huge effort to even get those towns to the point of being able to operate on a normal schedule for the normal residents.

[00:05:17] So just please be mindful of, you know, of that.

[00:05:22] Anyway, we served as kind of a hub here in Waynesville.

[00:05:28] We lost power for about two hours after the storm, which was in the grand scheme of things was actually really good.

[00:05:37] You know, my personal residence, we lost power for about a week.

[00:05:43] And even on that side, we were really lucky.

[00:05:46] We live on a hill.

[00:05:47] We were very, very lucky.

[00:05:49] So Waynesville did get hit pretty hard with flooding.

[00:05:54] Waynesville itself didn't get hit as bad with mudslides.

[00:05:58] But there were a couple towns here in in Haywood County that got hit with mudslides.

[00:06:04] One example is Maggie Valley.

[00:06:06] There were several mudslides in the surrounding areas.

[00:06:09] And but yeah, that's that's kind of the grand scheme of things of how it went in Waynesville.

[00:06:15] There's some pretty severe flooding.

[00:06:18] Whenever you get a little bit east of here into Buncombe and Yancey counties, there was not only the factor of the storm flooding and dumping, you know, up in the high teens, low 20s area of inches of rain.

[00:06:33] And then also with that was a lot of mudslides.

[00:06:39] And from from what I hear, there was possibly even a couple really low grade tornadoes that may have hit like in Black Mountain area.

[00:06:48] And, you know, all of that is still not even out.

[00:06:51] Right.

[00:06:51] There was one in Bowling Rock for sure.

[00:06:53] So there's several cases like that, several stories.

[00:07:00] But I will tell you one thing.

[00:07:01] I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the world.

[00:07:03] That's that's for sure.

[00:07:04] I've not seen a community gather together like this and surround things and come together, you know, as one, you know, community to help each other any time before more than this.

[00:07:18] Yeah.

[00:07:18] Which has been really great.

[00:07:20] And I want to talk a little bit more about that before we do want to talk about, again, the current community stuff that you've got going on.

[00:07:26] You know, I know you've got some events kind of on the schedule last week of October.

[00:07:29] But maybe look into November and tell me what's coming up there that folks will be able to listen to and get in and be involved in.

[00:07:37] Yeah.

[00:07:37] So kind of a big event we've got coming up is on November 2nd.

[00:07:41] We have we're attending as part of the there's a couple different ways that the money is going there, but it's called Haywood Heroes here in Haywood County.

[00:07:52] We've got a couple of departments that need some equipment and the Clyde Fire Department specifically actually got flooded in Haywood County.

[00:08:03] And that's the first time that departments ever flooded before.

[00:08:06] Even when Ivan and Francis hit no for Hurricane Fred hit in 2021.

[00:08:11] It's never had water in the station and it did get water this time.

[00:08:14] So this is benefiting Clyde and Waynesville Fire Departments.

[00:08:19] And then it's also benefiting one other nonprofit organization that comes out of the frog level community based here in Waynesville.

[00:08:28] So that's the nonprofit that's kind of running everything.

[00:08:31] And me and one other food truck is just kind of assisting.

[00:08:35] And there's there's a possibility of some other folks being able to come.

[00:08:38] We just don't know about the schedules just yet, but the event is happening November 2nd at Axon All Leather Works in Waynesville off of Depot Street.

[00:08:47] And I expect, you know, a really good turnout since this is something that's good for the community.

[00:08:54] We just got out of the Waynesville Apple Festival, and that was a huge record number turnout.

[00:09:01] Wow.

[00:09:02] Which was the first normal event since the storm.

[00:09:06] Yeah.

[00:09:06] You know, as you as well as, you know, end of end of September, beginning of October.

[00:09:12] That's that's our festival season here in Western North Carolina.

[00:09:16] And all the events in Western North Carolina were canceled.

[00:09:19] Yeah.

[00:09:20] Yeah.

[00:09:21] All the big hitters for us were canceled until the Apple Festival in Waynesville.

[00:09:25] And it was a huge success for us.

[00:09:29] Pumpkin Fest in Franklin was also a huge success for us.

[00:09:33] And again, you know, Franklin is one of those towns that are accepting visitors.

[00:09:37] So I highly advise people to come check those out.

[00:09:41] Shop local if you can.

[00:09:43] I've talked to a ton of businesses, especially here in Waynesville, that rely on that tourism, you know, business.

[00:09:50] And there are unfortunately going to be some businesses that will not come out of this, even though they didn't get hit by flooding or the storm.

[00:09:58] There is going to be the economical impact that's going to happen to those businesses.

[00:10:03] And some of that is is is yet to come.

[00:10:07] I feel like some of the darker days are upon us and in that business world.

[00:10:14] But we've we've linked up with a few people that it sounds like that we're going to be OK, you know, talking about as far as our business goes.

[00:10:23] So we can we just kind of adjusted our operation a little bit and we've kind of changed focus on who our target audience is, if you will.

[00:10:32] OK, let's talk about that here just a little more.

[00:10:35] Obviously, as you mentioned, just kind of kind of recap what you said.

[00:10:37] It's peak leaf season around this part of the Carolinas and certainly in your area.

[00:10:41] This is the time when everybody traditionally ride the Blue Ridge Parkway and visit all those festivals really from, you know, Boone and the high country around West Jefferson,

[00:10:50] all the way down into Cherokee and that part of the state, always definitely dependent on that tourism.

[00:10:55] So it's great to hear, you know, like you mentioned, Dillsboro and Waynesville and Franklin and Cashers and Highlands and all those places out west.

[00:11:03] It traditionally are relying on your tourism definitely need it more than ever.

[00:11:07] So I know that that's a great way for folks to respond as they can support as they have done.

[00:11:15] Been so neighborly during all this disaster time.

[00:11:17] I know that you've spoke about there.

[00:11:19] But Ben, tell me a little bit about how you've responded to that.

[00:11:22] Let's go back to what you were saying, how your business is adjusting to that.

[00:11:25] But then, you know, after that, I want to get into some of the relief efforts that you've been part of.

[00:11:29] So how have you guys adjusted, you know, since this curveball has been thrown to all the Carolinas?

[00:11:36] Yeah.

[00:11:36] So I kind of went into it of the mindset of the Waffle House method is what I call it.

[00:11:42] Okay.

[00:11:42] You know, Waffle House never closes.

[00:11:44] Right.

[00:11:45] It's one of those places, you know, in Florida, they look at Waffle House.

[00:11:48] They don't watch the weather.

[00:11:49] If Waffle House closes, they probably get out of the area.

[00:11:53] Sure.

[00:11:53] And to be honest with you, I don't even know if Waffle House here ever closed.

[00:11:57] I would assume they did because we didn't have power in certain places for several days.

[00:12:01] Right.

[00:12:02] But nonetheless, Thursday before the storm, we were one of the only places that was open.

[00:12:08] And we had a line for probably six hours here, which is very abnormal.

[00:12:16] We did about, you know, 600% more business on that Thursday just because we were open.

[00:12:22] And this was before the storm even hit?

[00:12:25] Before the storm.

[00:12:26] Because all—

[00:12:26] It was raining, you know.

[00:12:28] Yeah.

[00:12:29] Right.

[00:12:29] We got some precursor rain for two or three days, which totaled up to somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 inches of rain in three days.

[00:12:37] So we were—you know, it wasn't flooding yet.

[00:12:40] But the storm was not here yet.

[00:12:42] So I had the mindset.

[00:12:44] I was like, okay, well, we're going to stay open for people.

[00:12:48] I started a post on our social medias asking people if they would like to pay for first responder meals because I know we had a ton of first responders in the area.

[00:13:04] And to be quite frankly with you, I felt really bad about this storm.

[00:13:08] I had a bad, bad feeling about this.

[00:13:10] So I knew there would be a ton of first responders in the area.

[00:13:13] So what we did was we put out our Venmo on social medias.

[00:13:18] And if people wanted to—we put in our Venmo and then we also put out a post.

[00:13:23] If you would be interested in buying a first responder meal, message us, call us, text us.

[00:13:29] We'll send you an invoice for $12.

[00:13:31] And what that'll do is that'll cover a first responder meal, a protein and two sides and a drink, whatever we're carrying that day.

[00:13:38] And their meal is covered.

[00:13:40] In the past, we've always given a hefty discount on first responder meals.

[00:13:46] And to be honest with you, probably a little bit too much sometimes, but that's obviously the area that I come from.

[00:13:51] So I always know how it is as a first responder.

[00:13:55] It's really expensive to eat out all the time.

[00:13:57] So I wanted to create some kind of fundraiser, if you want to call it that, to pay for first responder meals.

[00:14:05] And we ended up getting about 150 or so first responder meals donated before the storm ever hit.

[00:14:14] Wow.

[00:14:14] So that was great.

[00:14:17] Circle into Friday morning, Thursday night, I went into Waynesville Fire Department.

[00:14:24] I'm still part-time there as a part-time firefighter.

[00:14:28] I still work there, and I still work at a little department called Woodfin in North Asheville.

[00:14:33] So I went into Waynesville.

[00:14:35] I knew I'd be there for probably several days.

[00:14:37] So I went in Thursday night.

[00:14:42] They upstaffed, obviously, with the storm coming.

[00:14:45] We put together a little boat team and a swift water team of four personnel.

[00:14:49] And I manned that for about three and a half days, Thursday night to Sunday.

[00:14:56] And I helped man that until Sunday.

[00:15:00] I could have stayed longer, and they upstaffed for longer, and they needed the help longer.

[00:15:04] But I also knew that my team needed my help here after that.

[00:15:11] So going into Friday morning, about 3 a.m., we get our first call for a water rescue or evacuation.

[00:15:18] I forgot what was first.

[00:15:20] You know, we suit up, get in our equipment, get in our boats, all hooked up and everything.

[00:15:25] And we go right into starting to evacuate folks in the lower-lying areas of Waynesville.

[00:15:31] And we continued to be in the vehicle, in our equipment, for about 13 to 14 hours.

[00:15:38] Wow.

[00:15:38] Holy cow.

[00:15:39] So it didn't quit raining until around lunch in Waynesville.

[00:15:45] And we got some pretty significant flooding.

[00:15:50] Our team was responsible for, let's see, one swift water rescue in the Allens Creek community.

[00:16:04] And we had the help of the Raleigh Fire Department Task Force, Task Force 8.

[00:16:10] They helped us set up a high line and get some folks out off of one of the adjoining roads that follows Allens Creek.

[00:16:18] And then, obviously, the calls started really ringing in at that time period.

[00:16:26] And that was about 5 a.m., I guess.

[00:16:30] And then, you know, in the whole western region, at one point, you know, there was not enough rescuers as there was calls.

[00:16:40] Yeah.

[00:16:40] Which is a very, you know, not a very hopeful feeling.

[00:16:44] That's scary.

[00:16:45] Yeah, for sure.

[00:16:46] Yeah.

[00:16:47] After that rescue went through, very first thing, I lost my radio that we communicate with.

[00:16:53] It went into the water.

[00:16:56] We got those folks out.

[00:16:58] I get back to the truck after that rescue.

[00:17:01] We're headed to another rescue.

[00:17:02] I'm sitting in the back seat.

[00:17:03] I try to make a phone call.

[00:17:05] There's no communication.

[00:17:08] Zero.

[00:17:08] No cell service.

[00:17:09] No phone lines were working.

[00:17:11] And at one point, some of our radio communication systems were even having a hard time.

[00:17:17] Luckily, we're on a pretty old system here in Haywood County, and it's an analog system.

[00:17:21] So we still had some radio communications.

[00:17:24] But that was the only way that we could communicate.

[00:17:26] Where I felt really not really well was I couldn't get a hold of my family.

[00:17:34] And I knew that their plan was to come in and work.

[00:17:37] You know, I said, you know, we're going to be open when everybody else is closed.

[00:17:42] But whenever we started getting out and about in the area in Waynesville, at one point, there were certain parts of Waynesville that we couldn't even get to.

[00:17:52] So, you know, I knew I needed to get a hold of my family personally somehow.

[00:18:00] Luckily, the phone service was working just enough that I got a hold of one of my employees.

[00:18:06] I told her, I said, go straight to my house, make sure my wife hasn't left.

[00:18:10] Got a hold of her later after another call.

[00:18:14] And she, my wife had already left.

[00:18:17] So I was like, oh, my goodness.

[00:18:18] So we're out here doing all these, you know, trying to evacuate all these people and get these people out of water.

[00:18:24] And it's just kind of, it's a very odd feeling because I had no idea like where my family's at and what's going on.

[00:18:35] Luckily, somehow the phone service worked just good enough to where the employee that I did call, Ashley is her name that works for us.

[00:18:43] And she did, in fact, get in touch with my wife.

[00:18:47] And finally, I found out that they were safe.

[00:18:49] So that was, that was a good feeling.

[00:18:51] And I could kind of fully focus back on the, the rescue world of the fire service, you know.

[00:18:57] So we, you know, did several water rescues up until a little bit after lunch.

[00:19:02] Around 2 p.m., the water started receding.

[00:19:04] And then we started finding the other damages that were, that were going on.

[00:19:07] And there's a ton of other hazards and such that go with that as well.

[00:19:11] And I had, I knew with water being that bad in Waynesville, because we, something special about Haywood County is Haywood County waterways, all, all the headwaters start in Haywood County.

[00:19:26] So we have no water coming into Haywood County.

[00:19:28] So all the streams and rivers in Haywood County in, you know, relation are fairly small.

[00:19:36] So, um, I knew whenever it flooded this bad in Waynesville, that other areas were going to be completely devastated.

[00:19:42] Right.

[00:19:42] I didn't, I didn't have to see the news or anything like that to know that.

[00:19:47] Um, so, um, I knew that, um, one of the only places that had, uh, internet was Waynesville fire department.

[00:19:56] Um, we never lost our phone line there for some reason, and we never lost our internet.

[00:20:00] Um, so I did have a little bit of communication with outside, um, what I call the outside world at that point, uh, to kind of let them know what was going on.

[00:20:11] Um, and I did put a post out on our business page at one point that said, you know, be really careful, pray for us.

[00:20:17] This is really bad.

[00:20:19] This is much worse than, than anything, you know, than, than people really realize.

[00:20:24] Um, so any, anyway, we go through several more days of, of, uh, you know, figuring out what's going on and, and the damage and, um, kind of investigation.

[00:20:35] And then we get into Sunday and we kind of go back into, um, and this whole time we kind of back up a little bit to Friday.

[00:20:45] My team, my wife and, uh, one of our employees did, um, open, uh, at my, my business, um, while I was at the fire department.

[00:20:55] So, um, on Saturday, uh, Friday, I'm sorry, Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday, we transitioned over to giving out free meals.

[00:21:04] Um, and, uh, we ran out of food on Friday.

[00:21:09] So I didn't have anything to cook.

[00:21:12] I didn't have any way to get any product.

[00:21:14] I didn't have any communication with anybody and, um, kind of went, you know, I was in the dark a little bit cause I was like, I don't know, you know, gas was being short.

[00:21:25] So, um, I, I didn't really know really what to do, um, where to get anything.

[00:21:31] So when I got back to the station at one point, um, I got ahold of TMG pits in Knoxville to ask them how bad it was over there.

[00:21:39] And, um, they were willing to, um, I called out for help to them.

[00:21:45] I said, I said, you know, we need help.

[00:21:48] Um, grocery stores are going to run out of food.

[00:21:51] We're going to run out of, you know, there's going to be places run out of gas.

[00:21:54] Um, we just need a little bit of help getting some food here.

[00:21:57] And, um, they rounded up about $4,000 and donated, you know, food and, and, you know, took some money that was donated.

[00:22:04] They brought me about $4,000 worth of food and it took them seven hours to get here on Saturday, um, from TMG pits in Knoxville.

[00:22:12] Um, cause if you, you know, for people that don't know, interstate 40 was washed out.

[00:22:16] Um, so they came through the towns of Newport, hot springs, um, came down into the Crabtree, Fines Creek area to get into Haywood County.

[00:22:25] Okay.

[00:22:26] And it took them, took them seven hours.

[00:22:28] And normally that's a, an hour trip or so, right?

[00:22:30] Yeah.

[00:22:31] An hour, hour and a half max.

[00:22:32] Um, took them seven hours.

[00:22:34] They brought me food, ate supper, turned right back around and went back home.

[00:22:39] Didn't ask for a dime, wouldn't take any money.

[00:22:42] And I asked them, I was like, well, what do you, do you want pictures?

[00:22:44] Do you, they're just like, just make sure it gets to the people, you know, that need it.

[00:22:49] So we continued to hand out food and we got, you know, there was people coming up that were willing to pay.

[00:22:55] And I told them just to pay whatever they wanted to.

[00:22:58] And, and we would put that pot into the next day.

[00:23:02] Um, I go into, uh, my, my church, um, on Sunday and kind of tell them what's going on from the first responder standpoint and kind of tell them what's going on.

[00:23:13] Um, because there was no communication from the County or emergency management at this point.

[00:23:18] You know, people showed up to church like it was, you know, they knew that it was a devastating storm.

[00:23:23] They didn't know how bad there was, there was no communication other than, you know, whoever had, uh, you know, maybe some kind of antenna, uh, uh, radio, um, battery operator radio or, uh, some kind of antenna TV.

[00:23:38] If that was working, I don't know.

[00:23:40] Um, and, uh, some places, operation centers were working off of Starlink's.

[00:23:46] Um, and you know, there's a bunch of numbers on how many people didn't have power and this, that, and the other.

[00:23:51] So, um, we continue to give out food until essentially we're going out of money throughout the week.

[00:23:58] Um, and then we, uh, hooked up with, uh, I was in contact with operation barbecue relief.

[00:24:05] They were trying to get me some stuff, but as well as you know, Waynesville wasn't really hit as bad as some other areas.

[00:24:11] So they, I think they ended up in Asheville and Hendersonville.

[00:24:15] Yep.

[00:24:16] Um, so, um, that was, uh, one contact that I had and I did reach out to world central kitchen at one point.

[00:24:23] And I think they ended up going to the casino.

[00:24:26] Um, but that's, that's a couple organizations that I did reach out to.

[00:24:30] Um, and there were many reasons why it didn't work out to get them here at my location, but they, they've been doing a phenomenal job, um, handing out hot meals.

[00:24:39] Um, and, uh, I reached out to, uh, uh, Lewis Donald from sweet lose.

[00:24:45] He also reached out.

[00:24:46] He got me some product, uh, from inland seafood.

[00:24:50] Um, they got me some chicken stock and a bunch of burgers donated.

[00:24:55] Um, and then there's been a ton of money that's been donated to us.

[00:24:59] Um, probably totaling up towards the $10,000 mark or so that's been donated strictly just to us, um, on top of the donated food.

[00:25:09] And, um, I, I would say we're, we're well into the thousands of meals donated.

[00:25:14] I have no idea.

[00:25:15] Um, I wasn't really keeping track and we've been in, uh, Waynesville.

[00:25:19] Uh, we've been in Asheville, Black Mountain.

[00:25:22] Um, we've been in, uh, Burnsville for a couple of days.

[00:25:27] Um, and it sounds like we may be going back to the Burnsville area to, uh, hand out some free meals, uh, working with the U S veterans court.

[00:25:37] Um, cause he, he's still in contact with some of those people.

[00:25:40] So, um, and we're, we're kind of, we jumped back into, uh, a little bit normal schedule a couple of weeks after the storm.

[00:25:50] We gave out food for about a couple of weeks, uh, just strictly giving out food.

[00:25:54] And then we kind of adjusted a little bit, uh, cause you know, obviously we got to get cashflow coming back in.

[00:26:02] Um, um, yeah.

[00:26:04] Cause how many people are you guys employing?

[00:26:06] How many folks are you guys doing this with?

[00:26:08] Yeah.

[00:26:08] So we got one full time, uh, me and myself, I'm, I'm full time as well in the business.

[00:26:14] And then we got about four full time or four part timers as well that rely on us.

[00:26:18] So there's some, some of the part timers, you know, this is their only job.

[00:26:22] Um, and, uh, you know, some of the people that work for us, their full time jobs needed them.

[00:26:29] And some of them didn't, you know?

[00:26:31] So, um, we just been kind of using whoever, wherever we can get them.

[00:26:36] Um, there were some people that volunteered from my church that came in and volunteered.

[00:26:39] Um, so anyway, we got into a couple of weeks later.

[00:26:42] Um, and we kind of try to figure out what normal looks like again.

[00:26:46] Right.

[00:26:47] Um, about a week after the storm, Duke power and Haywood County got ahold of us and they

[00:26:52] had about 500 contractors in the area that needed to be fed two meals a day.

[00:26:58] Um, and that's a paying job.

[00:27:00] Yeah.

[00:27:00] So that's a lot of work too.

[00:27:03] It was, but there were some aspects that I didn't think about.

[00:27:07] Um, cause at that time period, there was still a little bit of, uh, scarcity with gas.

[00:27:12] Well, uh, one of our mobile food units use it's, it's a gasoline.

[00:27:16] Um, so I was like, well, I don't know where I can get, you know, five gallons of gas a

[00:27:23] day to operate.

[00:27:24] So I worked with Haywood County schools and they put in a 50 amp plug at Tuscalo high

[00:27:29] school.

[00:27:30] And that was one place where they could get the big trucks in and out.

[00:27:33] So we fed them for about a week at Tuscalo high school.

[00:27:37] So we had one trailer that was feeding Duke power.

[00:27:39] The other trailer was giving out free food.

[00:27:42] Um, and the free food slowed down pretty significantly after about that first week.

[00:27:48] Um, and once we got past that first week into the second week, then gas started coming back

[00:27:56] in.

[00:27:57] Um, you know, grocery stores started getting food in again.

[00:28:00] Um, and, um, things were, were looking up.

[00:28:06] Um, cause I expected us not to be able to get gas or food into the grocery stores for

[00:28:13] a while because I knew 26 was closed.

[00:28:16] Uh, 40 was closed in both directions.

[00:28:18] And the only way here was through Atlanta on a major highway.

[00:28:21] Um, so I was like, man, this is going to take forever to fix.

[00:28:25] And luckily they got 40 East open pretty quick.

[00:28:28] And then 26 from South Carolina was open pretty quick as well.

[00:28:32] I don't know if it ever closed actually, um, other than tree downs and such like that.

[00:28:37] So we went back into a little bit of a normal business, uh, area.

[00:28:42] Um, the city of Asheville got us to cater for a few departments because they didn't have

[00:28:47] running water.

[00:28:48] Um, that we, we, uh, fed the water department and then we fed the whole fire department that

[00:28:54] was working one day.

[00:28:55] Um, and those were about 300 mils a piece that we did receive a little bit of compensation

[00:28:59] for.

[00:29:00] Um, and then after that we had to go out and find business.

[00:29:04] Um, so, um, to be honest with you, it's a little bit of a blur of, of what happened.

[00:29:11] Um, but we would open here at our building and we would, uh, you know, find,

[00:29:17] other areas that wanted hot food.

[00:29:19] Um, and, and working with the U S veterans core too, cause he, he, he would pay us to

[00:29:25] go give out free meals.

[00:29:26] Um, and you know, kind of the way it would work is he would give us a thousand bucks and

[00:29:32] we would feed as many people as we could with that money along with trying to keep ourselves

[00:29:37] up.

[00:29:37] Um, you know, and that's, that's kind of how that was working.

[00:29:41] And that was, uh, a huge break for us.

[00:29:44] Um, um, cause I didn't, like I said, I didn't really know where our business was headed.

[00:29:50] Um, and then, you know, a couple of weeks later, the second weekend in October, uh, church

[00:29:57] street festival cancels as well.

[00:29:59] Um, so they have, you know, the last weekend in September, the first weekend in October

[00:30:04] and the, the second weekend in October, all the events are canceled.

[00:30:09] Um, so, and I fully expected apple festival to cancel too, but they did have it.

[00:30:14] Right.

[00:30:14] And, and, and this past week was actually like the first normal week that we had.

[00:30:19] So, um, mission hospital also got ahold of us.

[00:30:22] We did a paying job there.

[00:30:23] Um, we fed, uh, hospital employees a value meal.

[00:30:28] Um, we came up with a meal that costs about nine 50, um, for seven days in a row.

[00:30:33] And we ended up feeding approximately about a thousand meals at the hospital over seven

[00:30:39] days.

[00:30:39] Wow.

[00:30:40] Um, so that was a pretty good little gig too.

[00:30:41] Yeah.

[00:30:42] Um, and then this week we're back to normal.

[00:30:44] We're back to our normal schedule.

[00:30:46] Um, we've got some events coming up and like I said, on the second, we've got, we've got

[00:30:50] that coming up too.

[00:30:51] So that's kind of an overview.

[00:30:52] I'm sure I missed a bunch of stuff, but that's, but like you said, it's a blur for sure.

[00:30:57] And then, um, it definitely appreciates you sharing that, you know, that testimony of

[00:31:02] that narrative with us, uh, it's, it's eyeopening and it really provides some clarity from somebody,

[00:31:07] you know, who was there and experienced all that.

[00:31:09] And you kind of touched on this and, uh, in the early going about, you know, people

[00:31:14] helping one another and, you know, seeing the best in our humanity out there in the

[00:31:18] community.

[00:31:19] So, you know, maybe, is there another example or an idea or tell me something that you've

[00:31:23] seen that, you know, gave you a little bit of faith that, Hey, you know, we might be

[00:31:26] all right on this planet in spite of everything else.

[00:31:29] We're all kind of coming together in a, in a good way at a good time.

[00:31:32] Yeah.

[00:31:33] So in, in the barbecue world, I feel like barbecue places are, are, are built different.

[00:31:38] Um, you know, barbecue joints have, have a different mindset and, and the people that

[00:31:43] come to mind are, you know, Louis Donald from sweet loose Garen from John G's brought

[00:31:49] me wood and gas.

[00:31:50] Um, and TMG pits came from Knoxville to help one of the small fish like myself.

[00:31:57] And, and I don't, I don't know if they know this or not, but how far that goes in my book.

[00:32:05] Like to me, you know, for Louis Donald and, and Garen Kirkman to come up here for, for

[00:32:12] somebody that's just, you know, two food trailers.

[00:32:15] And, and it's, I'm not saying like a nobody, but like how small we are compared to who

[00:32:21] they are.

[00:32:21] Like that really meant a lot that they would take time out of their day and drive up here

[00:32:27] and get me product and go out of their way because they're having their own issues because

[00:32:32] of the storm as well.

[00:32:33] You know, I'm sure they had some economic impact as well.

[00:32:36] So that was very, very encouraging.

[00:32:38] And then also to see how many people that would wait in our line for food and they just

[00:32:46] take whatever we had.

[00:32:48] There was at one point we had, you know, pork and to go boxes was it.

[00:32:51] Um, we couldn't get anything else.

[00:32:54] Um, we got a Cisco order on that Monday after the storm and that's all they had was pork

[00:32:58] butts and to go boxes.

[00:33:00] Um, but we took it, you know, it was, it was what we could get.

[00:33:03] Um, and there were so many people that would give donations or, um, that would, would tell

[00:33:12] me their story of, of losing everything and, or, or they'd been without power.

[00:33:18] We were in, in Burnsville, you know, two weeks after the storm and our meals were the first

[00:33:24] hot meals that they've had in two weeks.

[00:33:26] Um, and I'm not saying they didn't have food, but there were no restaurants in town open

[00:33:31] because the municipal water supply was out.

[00:33:33] And then the same thing as in Asheville is the municipal water supply is still not functioning

[00:33:38] correctly a month later.

[00:33:40] Um, and that's a, that's a big deal as far as a, as a economical impact because all these

[00:33:48] restaurants and, and stores are still not open.

[00:33:51] Um, but to see how people's attitudes are after this, knowing all the struggles and, and there's

[00:34:01] literally people that will give you the shirt off of their back and they've lost everything

[00:34:06] is just, I wouldn't, I don't want to live anywhere else ever.

[00:34:11] Never.

[00:34:12] Absolutely.

[00:34:13] So tell us, Ben, you know, what can folks do?

[00:34:15] I want you to give us your Venmo, uh, address so that we can get it out there.

[00:34:18] But, but what can folks do now to continue providing that ongoing support in the community?

[00:34:23] Give me some organizations.

[00:34:24] You know, we obviously want to visit tourism, but, but tell us what folks can do to continue

[00:34:28] to provide support for this, this place we all want to, want to continue to love and

[00:34:32] live in.

[00:34:33] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:34:34] So, uh, three, I'm going to give a few organizations that I've seen firsthand, um, out there in

[00:34:42] the streets doing, um, you know, God's work as I call it.

[00:34:46] Right.

[00:34:46] Um, operation barbecue relief has been given out thousands of meals per day.

[00:34:51] World central kitchen has been given out thousands of meals a day.

[00:34:55] Samaritan's purse has been giving out.

[00:34:58] There's no telling how many generators they've given out.

[00:35:01] Um, I mean like good generators too.

[00:35:04] They give out generators.

[00:35:05] They give out the fuel can.

[00:35:07] Like literally the only thing you have to do is purchase gas or they'll give you a full

[00:35:12] propane cylinder, um, to, to operate it with.

[00:35:15] And they've even provided a solar generator too.

[00:35:19] Um, so Samaritan's purse is a huge one that's been, been given out stuff too.

[00:35:24] Um, there's a, uh, emergency RV supply.

[00:35:29] Um, I can't think of the exact name, but it's emergency RV.

[00:35:32] They've been given out, um, used or slightly used, um, campers and RVs to folks that have

[00:35:38] lost everything.

[00:35:39] Um, Calvary road, Baptist church, uh, has been given out.

[00:35:43] That's, that's my church.

[00:35:45] Um, they've been given out monetary, uh, you know, donations to people that have lost everything

[00:35:50] through, um, supplies, and they're actually hooked up with one organization right now.

[00:35:55] I don't know the name of it, but they're going to build about 20 tiny home structures

[00:35:59] on people's property that have lost everything for temporary housing.

[00:36:02] Yeah.

[00:36:02] Wow.

[00:36:03] Um, um, and then, uh, my personal Venmo, I'll have to pull it up real quick.

[00:36:09] I'll tell you what it is real quick.

[00:36:11] Um, but the, the biggest three organizations that I've seen, um, really like that's just

[00:36:18] really blown me away with Samaritan's Purse, Operation Barbecue Relief and, uh, World Central

[00:36:24] Kitchen.

[00:36:26] And my Venmo is Ben-Hooper-Zero.

[00:36:32] And it has our, our company logo in the middle of it.

[00:36:36] Excellent.

[00:36:36] And folks can get details at Ben's Backdraft BBQ.com.

[00:36:40] That's where your home of the website is.

[00:36:42] And I see down here, I scroll down towards the bottom and I see your weekly food trailer

[00:36:46] schedule.

[00:36:46] So if we want to find you in November, we'll get the details there.

[00:36:50] Um, and then of course your Instagram as well, Ben, Ben's Backdraft BBQ number one, um, Ben's

[00:36:58] Backdraft BBQ numeral one.

[00:37:00] Uh, you've had a lot of great videos.

[00:37:02] I wonder how is that, uh, that presence on Instagram, you know, kind of been part of

[00:37:07] your journey and both raising some support and awareness, you know, during the course

[00:37:11] of this event.

[00:37:12] So, you know, let me know some details there and then we'll wrap it up.

[00:37:14] You've given us so much of your time already.

[00:37:16] Yeah.

[00:37:16] Yeah.

[00:37:17] Yeah.

[00:37:17] So, um, we haven't made a huge presence on Instagram before, um, but kinda, uh, and I

[00:37:24] noticed that and I noticed there was a lot of, uh, uh, interaction on Instagram as well.

[00:37:28] So any video that I've been recording or updates, posts, whatever, um, we've been putting that

[00:37:34] on Instagram along with on Facebook, but there's been people from all over the country contacting

[00:37:40] us, you know, um, there was a group out of Atlanta that contacted us, um, just because

[00:37:46] they seen one of our posts and they're bringing tractor and trailers worth of stuff up here.

[00:37:50] Um, which is just, it blows my mind that people there's that, you know, yesterday there was

[00:37:56] two people that sent us checks that trust us enough to, to go out and give it to the people

[00:38:02] that really need it.

[00:38:02] Um, and, and we're going to try to do something super special around Thanksgiving time period

[00:38:09] to either, you know, uh, we're, we're going to run a special for people that can, it's going

[00:38:15] to be a link on our website that's coming up.

[00:38:16] I've got a guy working on it right now where people can buy their turkeys, uh, you know,

[00:38:21] whole Boston butts, whole briskets, whole racks of ribs, and then they can also donate a

[00:38:25] turkey to a family that needs it.

[00:38:27] And then I also want to do something super special for a firefighter family of mine.

[00:38:32] Um, from Asheville that did lose their house in all of this.

[00:38:36] Um, um, we're, we're going to try to do some type of fundraising organization for them.

[00:38:41] They do have insurance, but there's going to be things that, that cost money.

[00:38:44] Cause they also had a landslide as well.

[00:38:46] That's not covered.

[00:38:47] We're going to do something for them.

[00:38:49] Um, very special coming up soon.

[00:38:51] We just don't know what yet.

[00:38:52] So I don't want to announce that.

[00:38:53] Yeah.

[00:38:54] I understand.

[00:38:54] But, but yeah, that's, that's, that's what we're doing and what our focus is now.

[00:38:59] We're going to try to get back to normal, do some Christmas parties.

[00:39:02] If you want us to cater your Christmas party, call us, email us, get on the website.

[00:39:07] All that jazz.

[00:39:09] Hey Ben, that's great.

[00:39:10] Thanks so much again.

[00:39:11] And thanks for sharing that time with us again.

[00:39:13] It's Ben's backdraft BBQ.com.

[00:39:15] Or find him on Instagram at Ben's backdraft BBQ number one.

[00:39:20] Thanks so much for taking this time with us and sharing your story, Ben.

[00:39:24] Absolutely.

[00:39:25] Thanks for having me.

[00:39:26] You've been listening to the low and slow barbecue show on the mesh.tv network of podcasts.

[00:39:31] Be sure to visit us online at low, slow, BBQ show.com.

[00:39:35] That's where you'll find the blog and you can hear other podcast episodes.

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[00:39:52] You can find us on YouTube as well.

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[00:40:14] Special thanks to our guest, Ben from Ben's Backdraft Barbecue.

[00:40:17] Thanks as well to our producer, Andrew Moose and the whole team at the mesh.tv network of

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