Hurricane Helene Anniversary: Chimney Rock Mayor’s Senate Testimony Contradicted by Records, Officials

As the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene approaches on September 27, scrutiny is growing over disaster response in Western North Carolina — and the accuracy of local leadership testimony before Congress.

During a Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee hearing on September 22, Chimney Rock Mayor Peter O’Leary told Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) did not arrive in his community until months after the storm.

“Eventually, they did send some representatives down after, I can’t remember the exact time frame, but it would have been in the January, February time frame that they sent some SBA officers,” O’Leary testified.

Public records, social media posts, and other official testimony paint a different picture. SBA and FEMA were active in Rutherford County as early as October 2024 — just days after Helene struck. The Chimney Rock Village and Rutherford County Facebook pages posted information about SBA disaster relief multiple times in late October and early November.

Henderson County Commissioner Rebecca McCall told Senator Budd: “Within a few days, organizations showed up to offer assistance. SBA was one of those. We quickly established a disaster relief center. SBA had a presence at the DRC to answer questions and assist in application filing for loans.”

A Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) was set up at the Mountains Branch library in Lake Lure, staffed by SBA officers who provided consultations for homeowners and business owners. O’Leary’s claim that SBA did not show until January conflicts with these documented facts. While his frustration about no SBA staff being physically stationed in Chimney Rock Village may have been valid, presenting the agency as absent from the county entirely misrepresents the record.

Senator Budd: “They were asleep at the wheel”

Sen. Budd, chairing the hearing, described Helene as one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. “Almost one year ago today, Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida before continuing northward and devastating Western North Carolina,” Budd said. “Altogether, a total of 11 states were impacted and Helene caused almost $80 billion in damage, making it one of the worst hurricanes to hit the United States, ranking alongside Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina.”

Budd criticized the SBA for running out of loan funding just weeks into the recovery. “This led to an unacceptable 66-day shortfall lasting from October 12 through December 20 of last year. Here in North Carolina, 97% of business loan applicants were impacted by the shortfall. Frankly, under President Biden, they were unprepared and asleep at the wheel,” Budd said.

McCall: “He broke into Ingles”

Commissioner McCall testified about the post-storm reality in Henderson County: “September 27, 2024, will be a day we long remember. Hurricane Helene hit us with full force, causing flooding as deep as 30 feet in some areas and 2,000 landslides — 80 of which were in Henderson County.” State estimates put the total landslides across the state at 2,579, contributing to 108 deaths in North Carolina.

She described widespread infrastructure damage: “Power outages lasted up to two weeks for 1.5 million people across the multi-county area, with 95% of Henderson County affected. More than 425 miles of roads and 200 bridges were severely damaged.”

McCall added a startling anecdote: “I’m going to tell on our county manager. He broke into Ingles and took food off the shelves to supply our EMS facility so people would have something to eat.” She praised local responders: “Our EMS and fire departments had prepared days in advance, went door to door to evacuate people, and saved many lives.”

O’Leary: “It essentially added six to seven months”

For O’Leary, delays in funding were the central frustration in rebuilding Bubba O'Leary's General Store. He testified that while his SBA application was filed in October 2024 and approved shortly after, the lack of immediately available funds slowed his rebuild. “We were assured that funds would be available soon, and they were, I believe, in January. It essentially added six to seven months to our rebuild time,” he said, emphasizing the seasonal impact on a tourism-dependent village.

SBA: “Always ready to serve”

SBA Associate Administrator Chris Stallings, testifying under Administrator Kelly Loeffler, defended the agency’s preparedness: “We have committed to taking the lessons learned from Hurricane Helene to ensure the SBA is always ready to provide reliable and robust disaster support. We have improved funding readiness to prevent disruptions like those we saw last year.”

Accuracy matters

The hearing highlighted both federal shortcomings and community resilience, but O’Leary’s misstatement stood out. As the anniversary of Helene approaches, Budd warned: “We must ensure that a crisis like this will never happen again. Returning Western North Carolina to normal following Helene hinges on our federal government and its agencies working in coordination with one another.”