Cocke County business owners are celebrating Thanksgiving in a way they never expected [Video]

COCKE COUNTY, Tenn. — Cocke County was hit hard by Hurricane Helene. Several small businesses closed to fix the damage. Some have reopened while others have a little longer to go. 

Kendale Ball owns the Simpl Cafe in Newport. Flood waters caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage to his building and equipment. Two months later, he’s still not able to open back up but said there’s a lot of progress being made.

“It’s so weird. I feel like nothing has happened, but there’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes. We’ve been able to do several events to do some fundraising. So we’re that much closer to our opening goal,” Ball said. 

The goal is $60,000. He said insurance won’t cover any of it. That’s why he’s relying on pop-ups at other small …