Soul Sisters Depot full of hope after losing business to Helene
Soul Sisters Depot was inundated by the flooding in Waynesville Frog Level district.
Susanna Shetley photo
Around 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, Haley Ramey, co-owner of Soul Sisters Depot in Frog Level, began receiving calls from ADT that the store’s security alert system was sensing motion.
“I tried to look at the security videos on my phone but couldn’t see what was going on. I started breaking down knowing something really bad was happening,” said Haley. “I could just feel it.”
She and her husband hopped in their truck to check on the store and realized quickly just how dangerous the situation had become and how deep the floodwaters had gotten overnight and during the early morning hours. They could see that the water was halfway up the windows at the store. At this point, they went back home to grab Haley’s teenage boys and shovels, still not realizing how awful it truly was. During all this time, she was trying to call her business partner and co-owner, Chelsea Ramsey, but Chelsea had already lost cell service.
Chelsea found out when a friend who lives near Frog Level took a video and drove to Chelsea’s house to show her what was happening.
“I was watching the video and felt total numbness,” said Chelsea. “I was thinking, this can’t be real.” Shortly after, Haley’s mom and stepdad arrived at Chelsea’s house to get her. Their faces were pale, their voices trembling. All the while, Chelsea is disbelieving everything, still in denial it could be as bad as they were indicating.
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When Haley returned on scene with her family, they parked in the lot across from Charlie’s Corner and were in shock at what they saw. There were emergency vehicles everywhere and debris rushing down the street.
“I wore ankle-high rain boots, having no clue the water would be as deep as it was,” said Haley. “We walked around to the back of the store and the muddy water was up to our knees. I began to panic when I saw that the back doors to our store had been ripped off. It wasn’t until later that I realized all the stuff floating behind the store was ours.”
When Chelsea arrived, she came to the front door and had to step over tires, limbs and other types of debris. The waters had rushed down the street in a way that pushed forcefully into the front doors of the store and shoved clothing, jewelry, furniture, racks and other inventory to the back or out the rear doors.
“Standing there, looking at everything in our entire store mangled, muddy and pushed against the back walls was unbelievable,” said Chelsea. “We got to work immediately trying to find salvageable items and clean up. We didn’t know what else to do.”
Grateful for the community
“We can’t express how grateful we are for our community and how they’ve shown up to help us,” said Chelsea. “We feel so blessed that our homes weren’t damaged or destroyed, when so many were. We’re still feeling a deep loss because our store felt like home to us. We can only describe it as grief.”
Chelsea’s mom and Haley’s mom, GiGi and Crickett, are their only two employees. All four women have poured their hearts into the store and during those first hours and days, they needed other people to lift them up and that they did. Many folks arrived with shovels, dump trucks, buckets and other supplies willing to do whatever was needed to help with the cleanup process, not only at Soul Sisters but in all of Frog Level. Different individuals carried home piles of inventory to clean and restore it.
“We had some people from Sylva who came by and said they were unaffected where they lived but wanted to help others, so they just drove up and asked if they could help,” said Chelsea. “The generosity and kindness of others has been unbelievable.”
The Frog Level Merchants Association was in the middle of forming new committees when Hurricane Helene stormed in. The goals of the committees were to include beautification projects and planning various events throughout the year. Frog Level has spent years building itself into a thriving, independent district. Now, to be hit with such devastation is beyond overwhelming.
As with a lot of Helene stories, Chelsea and Haley smile as they talk of the goodness of humanity they’ve seen during this experience. For instance, Soul Sisters sells crystals and during the cleanup period, a group of small children sat in the corner of the store with buckets of water sifting through the mud to find crystals and rinse them off with water, as if they were gem mining.
The ladies at Soul Sisters have felt the love and encouragement from their families, friends, customers, fellow merchants and even complete strangers. The owners of Axe & Awl invited Haley and Chelsea along with the owners of Cultivate and Funky Fern Emporium, two other Frog Level businesses devastated by Hurricane Helene, to use part of their store to sell merchandise that was saved or repaired during last Friday’s Art After Dark event.
“We lost our commissioned items as well,” said Chelsea. “And these artists have been so generous to brush it off and tell us not to worry about it, but we do worry because that’s money out of their pockets as well, money they need to survive.”
What now?
“At first we thought we weren’t going to be able to save anything,” said Chelsea, “but then we realized a lot of our new inventory was still in boxes on an upper shelf in the back, so we were able to save that. We think we’re also going to be able to clean and restore more items than originally thought.”
Chelsea and Haley said they plan to have a salvage sale at some point where they will offer items that were only partially damaged or that have been restored. They also plan to be at the Apple Harvest Festival on Saturday, Oct. 19, in downtown Waynesville.
Souls Sisters had just launched a new website before the storm, but they had to remove items in the online store since they suffered an almost total loss in terms of listed inventory. They plan to eventually reinstate website sales once they assess everything and see what they still have available.
When asked what people can do to help them, they said to keep shopping and dining at the local establishments that are still open in an effort to support small businesses and our local economy.
Considering everything that has happened, Chelsea and Haley are hopeful for a future and grateful for what they could save. They’re navigating the complicated intricacies and potentially disappointing news surrounding SBA loans and insurance. With the store obviously closed for an extended period, the ladies are hopeful to receive unemployment since they were on salary through their business. They are also accepting donations through their website to assist with recovery and rebuilding efforts.
Emotionally, they are moving through the stages of grief and still feel like they’re a little bit in the shock and denial phases regarding the extent of the situation. As they have dealt with personal grief in their lives, they know the bargaining, sadness and acceptance phases will ultimately come. In terms of a location where they can open quickly, they’ve been offered shared spaces from a couple of gracious Waynesville merchants but are not sure of a timeline.
When asked if Soul Sisters will reopen, they’re not sure where or when or how, but as Chelsea said, “We are resilient and we’re going to come back, whatever that looks like.”
Soul Sisters Depot is accepting donations on their website. Click here to donate. As Chelsea and Haley say on their donation page, “Every contribution, no matter the size, brings hope to those affected and supports our shared goal of recovery. Thank you for your generosity and compassion during this difficult time.”
