Ingles Markets released the following statement on Facebook.
Ingles Markets is devastated by the catastrophic damage from Helene. Unprecedented destruction and tragic loss of life have touched every town, city, community, and business. Our hometown Black Mountain, North Carolina which houses our distribution center was one of these areas. We had loss of power, critical infrastructure, transport vehicles, inventory, and yes even loss of life. We were all severely impacted. Ingles has stores in our region with significant damage and some stores still without power and water. We are working diligently to bring operations back online and begin helping our community. Ingles is known for being there when hard times fall, it is part of our fabric to respond. At this time when we are reliant, we are grateful to our vendors, media partners and charity organizations we have coming to help us. Amid everything we are very proud of our associates. As they feed first responders, distributing goods to emergency management channels, assisting the Red Cross, and coordinating ways to do whatever possible to give while dealing through tragic personal loss of their own. We are making progress to come back online, and we want to thank you for your patience. To all of you and our beloved Western North Carolina mountains, we love you.
