Hurricane Helene’s Effect on U.S. Textiles
In late 2024, Hurricane Helene ripped through the southeastern U.S., hitting the Carolinas especially hard. Industries across the region suffered widespread disruption, with textiles—an economic cornerstone—taking a severe blow. This storm wasn’t isolated; it’s part of a growing pattern of increasingly frequent, intense storms fueled by climate change.
This post examines Hurricane Helene’s impact on the textile sector, highlighting Material Return, a Morganton, NC-based leader in circularity and sustainability, and a Carolina Textile District member. We’ll also explore the underlying role of climate change in spawning these storms and discuss how sustainable solutions can help strengthen industry resilience.
The Carolinas: A Historical Hub of U.S. Textiles
North and South Carolina have long been at the heart of the U.S. textile industry. Today, they rank as the second and third largest states for textile employment (1), underscoring their ongoing importance in domestic apparel production. North Carolina leads the nation with over 25,000 textile workers across nearly 400 facilities, producing nearly 20% of U.S. textile exports (2).
South Carolina, while no longer the dominant force it was in the mid-20th century—when Greenville alone produced more than 50% of the nation’s textiles—still supports over 18,000 employees in more than 200 facilities (3).
Together, the two states form a vital network of textile manufacturing and innovation, even in the face of significant challenges to the domestic textile industry.
The industry has endured seismic shifts over the decades. Between 1980 and 2011, the U.S. lost approximately 750,000 textile and apparel manufacturing jobs (4), with the share of American-made clothing plunging from 70% to just 3% (5). Despite this, the Carolinas have remained resilient hubs of production, blending heritage with modern practices.
Why Supporting the Carolinas’ Textile Industry Matters
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, organizations like Material Return exemplify the importance of sustaining the textile industry in the Carolinas. Beyond preserving a connection to the region’s storied past, these groups are driving critical innovation to address modern challenges. Their work is integral to shaping a sustainable and equitable future for the U.S. textile sector, ensuring that the industry not only recovers from disasters like Hurricane Helene but thrives in the face of them.
Hurricane Helene brought both challenges and opportunities to the Carolina textile industry, highlighting the resilience of organizations like Material Return and the collaborative strength of the Carolina Textile District (CTD). In the wake of the storm, which caused widespread flooding and structural damage, these organizations have stepped up to address the immediate needs of their communities while navigating the complexities of disaster recovery.
Overcoming Challenges: Managing Donations and Supporting Recovery
Material Return, a key player in sustainable textile practices in the region, faced significant logistical hurdles as the storm's impact drew an outpouring of public support. Bolek Strzelecki, administrative coordinator for Material Return, noted that “while public generosity has brought significant support, the sheer volume of clothing donations has created logistical challenges that complicate the receipt and distribution of other essential items.” Despite clear messaging to limit contributions to essential items, receiving sites were inundated with surplus and out-of-season garments, turning them into unmanageable “dumping grounds.”
This not only complicated the distribution of critical supplies but also underscored a systemic issue in how society approaches disaster aid.
“To alleviate the strain,” Strzelecki added, “Material Return is currently in process of recycling nearly 10,000 pounds of this clothing, a resource-intensive effort in its own right.” This effort, though burdensome, aligns with the organization's mission of turning waste into material value.
By addressing the immediate issue of surplus clothing, Material Return transformed a logistical challenge into an opportunity to further their sustainability goals.
Resilience Through Community: The Role of the Carolina Textile District
For many members of the Carolina Textile District, a members-governed and driven network of values-aligned textile manufacturers in North and South Carolina, Hurricane Helene’s challenges went beyond material donations to the core of their operations.
Businesses in Western North Carolina reported flooding and damage to machinery and facilities, posing significant obstacles to their ability to function. However, the networked strength of the CTD proved invaluable. Members leaned on one another to access grants, loans, and other resources. Under these extreme circumstances, businesses leaned on CTD to ensure contract obligations were met. By linking members who had lost production capacity to members still able to work, CTD ensured that products made it out the door to clients who needed them.
“CTD members were glad to come together for the Fall Gathering because it felt in a small way like a return to normal,” said The Industrial Commons' communications manager, Amy Vaughn. Continuing, she noted that “The [CTD] partnership demonstrates the importance of small manufacturers coming together because, through the strength of the network, they can share resources and collaborate to better withstand a crisis.”
Lessons Learned: Balancing Challenges and Opportunities
Hurricane Helene revealed both glaring vulnerabilities and untapped opportunities within the Carolinas’ textile industry. The logistical bottlenecks caused by unsolicited donations underscored the need for a systemic overhaul in disaster response frameworks. Misaligned contributions, such as out-of-season or excessive clothing, highlighted inefficiencies in traditional aid models that often fail to match community needs.
However, these challenges also sparked innovation. Material Return’s efforts to recycle nearly 10,000 pounds of surplus clothing exemplify how crises can drive mission-aligned solutions. Their ability to turn logistical setbacks into sustainable opportunities reflects a broader lesson for the textile sector: resilience lies in adaptability and alignment with long-term goals. Similarly, the Carolina Textile District demonstrated the power of collective action, leveraging its network to secure resources and share recovery strategies.
The takeaway is clear: resilience in the face of climate change requires both proactive planning and a commitment to sustainability.
Innovating for Future Climate Change Resilience
The devastation caused by Hurricane Helene is part of a troubling trend: the escalating frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The statistics are sobering.
Since 1980, the United States has endured 400 such ‘Billion-Dollar’ weather disasters and 2024 accounts for 24 of these. In fact, the frequency of these intense storms has more than doubled in recent years. The average annual occurrence of billion-dollar storms between 1980 and 2023 is 8.5 events. For the most recent five years (2019-2023), it’s more than 20 events (6).
This surge, driven by climate change, demands an urgent pivot toward resilience-focused and sustainable innovation.
In the textile industry, circularity offers a powerful framework for both sustainability and disaster resilience. For instance, our closed-loop, circular model for our made in the USA recycled cotton apparel relies exclusively on post-consumer and post-industrial cotton textile waste. This eliminates the need to cultivate virgin cotton, making it far more sustainable than traditional models. It also fortifies our supply chains against climate instability because we don’t rely on complex networks of logistical hand-offs, prone to climate change disruption (7), that ship, fly, and drive goods from one side of the planet to the other.
Beyond textiles, the principles of circularity are gaining traction across sectors. From the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan to emerging business models worldwide, the movement toward sustainable production and resource reuse is growing. For industries grappling with the dual pressures of climate change and global supply chain instability, adopting circular economies is no longer optional—it’s essential.
The path forward is clear: to mitigate the effects of climate change, reduce the economic toll of extreme weather, and develop climate-resilient operational models, industries must embrace innovative, scalable strategies that prioritize resilience. By learning from Hurricane Helene and accelerating the shift to circularity, the textile industry – and the ng from Hurricane Helene and accelerating the shift to circularity, the textile industry – and the broader industrial landscape – can build a future capable of withstanding what lies ahead.
Citations
1. South Carolina Daily Gazette, How SC’s once-dominating textile industry has transformed to supply new employers
2. Wilson College News, Exploring the Textile Economy: North Carolina Leads Nation in Textile Manufacturing
3. South Carolina Daily Gazette, How SC’s once-dominating textile industry has transformed to supply new employers
4. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Spotlight On Statistics: Fashion
5. The Atlantic, ‘Some Damn Fine Shoes’
6. National Centers for Environmental Information, Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters
7. Economics Impact, Climate change's disruptive impact on global supply chains and the urgent call for resilience