ERWIN, Tenn. (WJHL) — Floods from Hurricane Helene dealt the Erwin Industrial Park a devastating blow six months ago. Now, the companies that employed 250 people here hope that they’re on the comeback trail.

“I’m optimistic that we’re going to get through the SBA process, get some funds to help us start out, get one line running,” Foam Products Vice President Perry Muse said. He said the company suffered an estimated $7 million in damage and will need about $4 million from SBA to make its numbers work.

Foam Products is one of six companies whose fortunes took that kind of turn as floodwaters from a surging Nolichucky River ripped through the park. Muse hopes that before the end of the year, he can bring back some of the 54 people who worked there pre-flood.

“I’m one of the three board members, and so I’m boots on the ground here and been with the company for over 22 years,” Muse said of the partly employee-owned, Georgia-headquartered manufacturer. “They have confidence that we’re doing the right things here, which we are. We all want this plant to be back up and running again.”

Unicoi County Economic Development Director Austin Finch still hopes all six companies in the park will return.

“There is actively inventory in the building right over here,” Finch told News Channel 11, pointing to Blue Linx, a building products distributor that employed 25 people prior to the flood. “And that is the first signs of life returning.”

That return was in doubt after the Nolichucky River caused tens of millions of dollars in damage. Six employees of Impact Plastics, a business at the downstream end of the park, drowned as they attempted to escape the low-lying area.

“Watching this park get engulfed in those flood waters and just thinking about what those consequences mean and the type of damage, I didn’t know if we’d be able to bounce back,” Finch said. The disaster helped push Unicoi County’s unemployment rate from 4.3% in September (about 20 counties had higher rates then) to the state’s highest a month later. It reached 6% in November and has stayed at 5.9% through January.

As of now, Blue Linx, PolyPipe (54 employees) and Old Hickory Buildings (18 employees) all have said they’ll reopen this year.

The other three, which also include PlastiExports and Impact Plastics, had more expensive production equipment. They remain reliant on financing and, if it works out, Tennessee Economic and Community Development (ECD) grants to get over the hump. Finch said local leaders, including him, have been working with ECD officials to try and reach an approach to helping the companies that would fit within normal ECD grant parameters.

His hope is that a package totaling “well in the millions” is in the offing.

“Under specific terms that’ll help these businesses in ways that are within the existing guidelines and that are still going to have some direct impact,” Finch said. “That’s the puzzle we’re putting together.”

Muse said that would help — but the potential $4 million SBA loan is the key, and has been delayed so far in a process that’s been frustrating.

“I think that we can cover the other expense to get the other $3 million covered. But we need at least that $4 million. It’s a make or break.”

Foam Products will need up to six months – after a cash infusion – to get that one line running. Full recovery, if it comes, is a three- to five-year prospect.

“We’d have to have the revenue and over time get the other two lines back up, and then we need product to run on those lines,” Muse said.

One thing that’s helped already? Public spending to bring in a temporary road and begin restoring utilities. ECD funded the road.

“That was huge,” Muse said of the road. “The huge dump trucks full of debris and stuff was just destroying the road and made it hard for us to get in and out of our property.”

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency recently announced a $2.1 million infusion to rebuild the CSX rail spur into the park. And Finch said utility restoration is costing a great deal more, partly because the county’s water plant sits near the industrial park and was inundated with floodwater.

TEMA/FEMA money has also helped offset debris removal costs for the companies, something Muse is grateful for. It’s also keeping some of his workers gainfully employed in that task without straining Foam Products’ finances.

“We’ve been blessed with a couple of really good months with some new business,” Muse said, referring to Foam Products’ other locations. Some of the Erwin work was able to be picked up at a retrofitted partner plant.

“The outlook for the company looks way better than what it did the last time we applied, so we’re hoping that’s going to heavily influence getting the loan approved,” he said.

“I hope it doesn’t take four months, but if it does take four months from June, July, that still puts us hopefully getting awarded the SBA loan before the peak business starts trending back down seasonally.”

Finch said those are the kinds of considerations that make reopening a still-tenuous prospect for some of the companies.

“Despite optimism, despite everybody’s intention and tenacity, there is no guarantee that this part comes back fully,” he said.

“The ship’s not sinking, but we’re still taking on water. But we’re still solving those problems, and hopefully, in a few months we’re going to be in entirely just full sail. Unicoi County has proved that we have 18,000 very tenacious people who aren’t giving up on our community, and we don’t plan to.”

Muse is operating under the assumption that Foam Products will get the loans it needs.

“Instead of waiting to get the money and then ‘let’s start working on it,’ we’re already working on it as though we’re going to get the money,” he said. “It will take us, I’m saying six months from then. Of course, would want to beat that, but worst case scenario, six months, and we’d be running product here.”