When climate disasters strike, line contractors are usually the first to respond. But in September 2024, when Hurricane Helene dumped more than 30 inches of rain on parts of western North Carolina, much of the early recovery effort hinged on the dogged determination of an inside wire contractor.

Rivers crested more than 20 feet beyond normal levels, engulfing and destroying major portions of Asheville. Neighboring communities were severely affected as well. In all, 107 people lost their lives.

The torrential rains also caused more than 2,000 landslides and washed away portions of major interstates and other thoroughfares. Many roads had to be partially restored before first responders and line crews could even get through.

Serving customers in a disaster

Within hours of Helene’s departure, CEIM & Associates, Weaverville, N.C., had a seven-man crew working furiously to get aggregate producers up and running so they could start churning out rock and gravel.

“The work we were doing was not for the utility companies, but road construction companies were needing these aggregate materials,” said Gary “Bo” Burnette, owner and president of CEIM & Associates. “It wasn’t just DOT [Department of Transportation], it was a lot of grading and excavation construction contractors. They had to rebuild the roads.”

Over the years, CEIM & Associates has served 21 different aggregate producers in the region. Asheville and nearby Weaverville are in Buncombe County, where a good portion of the state’s leading mineral commodity—crushed stone—is quarried and produced.

Lives throughout the region depended on getting the roads open. Fifty miles to the north, Irwin, Tenn., lost a hospital, roads and bridges. A growing sense of urgency caused people to work together as never before.

“Our customers gave us gas, and that’s how I fueled my trucks,” Burnette said. “I paid them back. It was a combined effort to begin recovery efforts fast.”

Securing electrical parts and materials also posed challenges. “We needed conduit, wire and soft-start starters. We had some MCCs [motor control centers] in stock in our warehouses, but it took a lot of juggling to get what we needed,” he said.

Heavy equipment operators helped bring some of the parts shipments through.

CEIM & Associates tackled plant rebuilding work incrementally, addressing primary functions first.

For multiple aggregate producers, CEIM & Associates had to connect generators. Billing operations needed to print order tickets and sell riprap and shot rock to fill big holes.

For others, CEIM & Associates replaced underground conduit that had been washed away.

Burnette said the company completed more permanent rebuild work in stages for different accounts as power became available. “We started getting power to different parts of the plants, and we were doing our work at different accounts at different times” he said.

Besides the quarry operations, the storm inflicted heavy damage to neighboring businesses and homes.

“My wife and I were struggling to keep water out of our basement, and finally we gave up,” Burnette said. “I fell asleep around 6 a.m. and woke up to find all the power lines in my driveway. From my house and up the valley, it was nine days before the power was back on.”

Burnett relied on a generator to power his home. But CEIM & Associates, located not far away, would stay dark.

“For my shop, I didn’t need power because I was working off-site,” he said. “We opened the loading bay doors manually. From where my shop is, it looked like the hand of god just flattened hundreds of acres of trees. You’d go another mile and see it again.”

Even so, less than a week after Hurricane Helene, the aggregate producers had hundreds of trucks lined up waiting for orders.

“It had to be 100,000 tons of materials going out of these plants on a daily basis,” Burnette said. “Each plant had to get the materials out and produce incredible amounts of tonnage. You didn’t see that on the national news.”

Like first responders and line crews, the aggregate producers and CEIM & Associates were given top travel priority for restoring damaged infrastructure.

“Everybody else was supposed to stay off the roads, but in many cases the roads had to be built in before anybody could get through,” Burnette said.

Even under normal circumstances, quarry work is rough on electrical equipment. It requires frequent maintenance and repair. Helene demanded much more.

“We do this work every day,” Burnette said. “We serve plant infrastructure for aggregate producers—we provide power and motor control services for rock crushers and the asphalt industry. We finished getting the last plant up and running last September, one year after Helene.”

Burnette anticipates demand for his services will remain intense. In addition to public thoroughfares, many municipal and private roads, bridges, parking lots and driveways still require repair.