The Haywood County Apple Harvest Festival will be held 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, in downtown Waynesville.

Hailed as one of the “10 Best Fall Harvest Festivals in the Nation,” the annual festival is a celebration of the autumn harvest and Haywood County’s agricultural heritage, attracting upwards of 20,000 attendees throughout the day. 

A region largely dependent on the tourism industry is now asking a question not heard since the COVID-19 pandemic — how to support retail and hospitality businesses that depend on foot traffic while respecting public safety guidelines and strained infrastructure across the region.

After discussions and consulting with the Town of Waynesville and partner organizations, The Haywood County Chamber of Commerce’s 36th Apple Harvest Festival will be taking place as scheduled, Saturday, Oct. 19, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

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.”

This is not the end of our story in Western North Carolina. Far from it. It’s an opportunity for a new beginning, a reshaping of this place that has always been so good for the soul. As I stand on my front porch steps and pause to look at and smell the trees, see leaves slowly spiraling earthward, feel the crisp bite of autumn in the morning air, take a deep breath and know that all will be healed in time. 

On the morning of Sept. 27, as rain fell steadily from the pre-dawn sky, Travis Donaldson took a drive around the eastern end of Haywood County. Donaldson, the county’s emergency services director, made a lap around all the appropriate areas, finishing up in Cruso with the intention of turning around and heading back toward Waynesville, where an emergency operations center had already been set up. 

Just a half-mile from the Historic Frog Level District in Waynesville — whose streets were once home to burgeoning, eclectic shops but have been devastated by the recent floodwaters of Tropical Storm Helene — stands a sanctuary of tranquility and solace: the Pearl Psychedelic Institute.

Throughout Hurricane Helene, the slogan going around Haywood County has been, “neighbors helping neighbors.” The personification of those words is nowhere more apparent than at Haywood Pathways Center in Waynesville, where a small group of volunteers gathered on Oct. 5 to minister to some of the county’s most vulnerable residents.

On Friday evening, downtown Waynesville was in kind of a festive spirit — a far cry from what all of us here in Western North Carolina have felt for over a week now.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, with FEMA Administrator Deanna Criswell in tow, continued his multi-day western swing today, making stops in Haywood County to survey damage from Hurricane Helene, to thank volunteers and to hear from local officials.