The Swannanoa River had never risen high enough to threaten the shop at Dark City Customs, situated about 300 yards from the water in Swannanoa, NC. But on the morning of Sept. 27, 2024, as Hurricane Helene hit, the river breached its banks, and filthy, gray-brown water rushed into the building filled with gleaming, custom-painted cars and trucks and hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment and inventory.
This was Jimmy Grooms’ American dream. He’d run a booming business out of the facility on Old Highway 70 for the past 16 years. He was well known for servicing everyday drivers and churning out showpieces ready for the road or trophy contention, and he’d invested every cent he made back into the businesses. The river rose 10 feet against the cinder block walls that day, destroying equipment, customer vehicles and Grooms’ livelihood.
“I put all my eggs in that basket,” Grooms told Autobody News. “This would have probably not been as bad if we would have taken some of the business profit and put some in the bank, but I didn't. I put it back into the business.”
Everything Gone
The wild, swirling waters took equipment Grooms still hasn’t found -- things like a brand new paint booth.
“It's like it never existed,” he said.
Dark City Customs before the storm.
Dark City Customs' staff left late the Thursday night before the storm hit with plans to come back Friday. They moved some specialty parts off the floor out of an abundance of precaution, but they had no idea the shop was at the amount of risk it was, so lots of heavy items stayed in place.
“We didn't move any cars out. Everything was up on lifts,” Grooms said. “All the welders and everything was just where we left it … We could’ve picked it up 20 feet, and it wouldn’t have mattered.”
Gone were the air compressors and air dryers. Lifts, welders and plasma cutters -- all swept away in the flood. Grooms did locate several shipping containers he used for wheel storage; one was about three football fields away from the shop, and a displaced family was living in it by the time he found it.
The shop’s $1.5 million worth of inventory mostly disappeared, he said. He’ll be lucky to salvage $100,000 of that amount if he can sell all of what’s left.
Grooms doesn’t remember weather warnings other than the fact the area was supposed to receive heavy rain. And the flood happened fast. The river began really rising around 7 a.m. and it was completely down by 4 p.m. or so, he said.
He quickly had to turn from his business to his own family. He and his wife, Jenica, have three biological children, and they foster another child. They still had to get dinner on the table in a house without power.
“It feels like getting out of college (and being) unsure of your life,” Jenica said. “But now, you have two mortgages and four kids to think about, and you just don't have time to think about yourself as an adult because your priority at that point is your kids.”
The receding waters revealed a devastated town: houses gone, roads badly damaged, residents without power, water or cell service -- and little help forthcoming.
“We didn't even have an interstate in or out,” Jenica said. “Nobody knew what was going on.”
She looked around at the community and saw residents who had lost their homes had no options. They simply needed a place to exist while they waited for help. Although the Grooms home sustained water damage, it was at least still standing, so Jenica threw herself into helping her neighbors.
Filling Needs
The couple began assisting with road clearing so the local fire department and medical teams could get through. When the Salvation Army came in, Jenica went door to door, talking to residents, getting a feel for needs and letting them know help had finally arrived. From there, she helped churches find running water they could direct the public toward.
: The interior of the shop prior to the flood. Dark City Customs handled regular and custom body work prior to the flood that swept away the building, equipment and inventory.
“That way, people could have a place to use bathrooms and get showers, I mean, because at this point we were already eight days in with no showers ourselves,” Jenica said.
Through a mutual friend, she met a man visiting from Utah with a construction background who wanted to help, and the two brainstormed ways to house those who had lost everything.
“We started with the idea of 10 structures, and we would supply them with a few needs,” she said.
That effort mushroomed as the two surveyed the damage. Over the next few weeks, they worked to house families across five surrounding counties in 12-by-16-foot insulated climate-controlled structures with metal roofing and padded, vinyl flooring. Generators powered indoor and outdoor lighting; those fortunate enough to have access to electricity could hook the small houses into that.
The structures went up in fields covered in mud -- wherever Jenica could secure permission to build, whether on recipients’ land or from landlords. A local organic farm volunteered space for displaced residents who couldn’t return to rental properties.
“We built, altogether, 101 structures,” Jenica said. “With all the connections that I made working with hundreds and hundreds of people, I was able to supply each family with about $2,500 worth of brand-new things: refrigerators, microwaves, Crock Pots, clothing, hygiene products, cooking utensils.”
Work on structures stopped after about four months, but Jenica is still cooperating with multiple churches and the public to fill ongoing needs like nutrition. She’s connected with a woman in Nashville who began helping to supply the community with $20,000 worth of food each month.
“It's not just normal food,” Jenica said. “We handpicked every individual food and loaded it so that way, families could actually have meals, versus a can of Beanie Weenies or things like that.”
‘I Can’t Do Free Anymore’
In the aftermath, Jimmy amped up his side gig -- skid steer work -- helping clear roads and driveways. He’s still doing that, and he’s moving buildings and vehicles with his rollback truck now. At first, he did the work for free.
Dark City Customs has not resumed operations -- not even close. The couple hasn’t even begun rebuilding as their insurance claims have been denied.
Among the flood losses were cars belonging to shop owners Jimmy and Jenica Grooms.
Tools, lost wages, the building -- nothing has been covered, Jimmy said. The cost of reconstruction, with a required 4-foot elevation, feels overwhelming for the couple, and the business loan they applied for was denied, they said.
“We're a small business,” Jimmy said. “We've already been closed going on almost six months. If this takes six more months longer, we might as well open back up a new business,”
Meanwhile, they still have to feed their family and meet regular expenses.
“I can't do free anymore,” Jimmy said. “Everyone around here deserves free work … but as a local, it's really hard to continue to pay your bills. None of our bills stop. We still have all of our bills at our shop, and it's dirt that we're paying for at this moment. And then none of the bills stopped here at home.”
The couple still lacks power at their home and the shop site, and other community members are struggling, too.
“We still have people living in cars here,” Jenica said. “It's not just us in this position, but it's hard to know what everyone else is going through.”
Most residents who have been able to improve their living conditions, the couple said, have done so through personal and church donations. Trash still litters treetops from where the water rose, road closures still necessitate lots of detours, and the flood rerouted the river, so new sinkholes develop after rain.
Things are better than they were immediately after the storm, Jenica said. The cadaver dogs and search crews have gone home, and the waters have receded, but there’s still so much to be done.
“We're doing better,” she said. “There are good changes, but it's still a disaster. If anyone comes down here, they're in shock. And I'm like, ‘This is great compared to what it was.’”
How to help: To donate to the Grooms family, visit their GoFundMe page.
Elizabeth Crumbly