An army of private volunteers including mule drivers and helicopter pilots are helping deliver supplies and rescue stranded victims after one of the deadliest storms in recent US history ripped through the mountains of western North Carolina.
One week after Helene slammed into the Florida Panhandle and devastated wide swathes of half a dozen states, thousands remained cut off around Asheville, North Carolina, with many roads impassable and telecommunications equipment damaged or destroyed. The mountain communities’ isolation has complicated the massive relief effort undertaken by federal, state and local officials.
Many residents have stepped up to help, including Ben Miller, a property agent and father of two from the Winston-Salem area, who has been driving supplies into the affected area. “It’s been pretty intense,” he said. “This seemed like it couldn’t happen here.”
Mr Miller dropped off 27,000 bottles of water in Marion, just outside Asheville, on Sunday. The next day, the 44-year-old brought aid to Spruce Pine, a remote town where he has family roots.
In addition to individual efforts, a number of volunteer groups are supplementing official channels of disaster relief, a long tradition that includes the so-called Cajun Navy, an ad hoc flotilla of civilians who helped rescue people stranded in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
A volunteer group of private pilots, the Altitude Project, says it raised $200,000 (€182,000) this week to fund operations, said member Andrew Everhart, who owns an insurance agency. His fellow volunteers include a professional race car driver, the owner of a distribution and logistics company, and others who work in commercial real estate and social media content creation.
The Altitude Project has been running supplies from a 2,300sq m warehouse in Charlotte to communities near Asheville, where about 50cm of rain fell in a matter of hours late last week.
Helene, which has killed more than 200 people, ranks as the most deadly named storm to hit the mainland United States since Katrina, though the 2005 storm claimed a much higher death toll, estimated at 1,400 in a 2023 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In the wake of Helene, the number of people unaccounted for remains unclear. Officials put the number in the hundreds earlier in the week, but that has come down as communications are slowly restored and stranded storm victims are located.
The official response has included 1,000 active-duty military personnel ordered to help by President Joe Biden. In addition, 4,800 people from the federal workforce and 6,000 National Guard personnel from 12 states have been deployed, according to the White House.
Another 600 search-and-rescue personnel were due to arrive and supplement the untold number of state and local rescue and relief teams.
Volunteers are stepping up as well, including Tennessee-based flight company Aeroluxe Aviation, which brought a ground crew and three Robinson 44 helicopters to the area, co-owner Brook Barzyk said.
Others have gone overland on foot – and hoof.
The Mountain Mule Packer Ranch in Raeford, North Carolina, is running mule trains of supplies into isolated areas, according to its Facebook posts.
Mountain Mule Packers specialises in “extreme terrain pack animal supply trains” and services to military units operating in remote and high-altitude areas, according to their website. – Reuters