As they ventured through western North Carolina helping with Hurricane Helene recovery efforts, Upper Pine River Fire Protection District first responders Jon Haner and Jake Rhodes were struck by the damage they saw.
“You could tell where the high-water levels were, which was way beyond the normal flood plain,” Haner said Tuesday in a phone interview. “Houses having been washed away, cars buried in the mud.”
The duo went along the fork of the French Broad River and the North Toe River on the west side of North Carolina, where they developed an even better idea of the storm’s impact.
“It would’ve been something equivalent of about the Colorado River running through a creek bed half the size of the Animas,” Haner said.
Haner and Rhodes arrived in South Carolina on Sept. 28 before stationing in North Carolina on Oct. 2. The duo left North Carolina by car Tuesday morning for more than a day and a half of driving back to La Plata County.
Although Rhodes had been on previous wildland fire deployments, it was his first experience on a hurricane relief deployment.
“It was interesting to see the flood path, what you think would get flooded didn’t flood,” he said. “Where you would not expect flooding, there was flooding.”
Haner has helped with a number of hurricane relief efforts in the past, but he said the flooding in North Carolina stood out.
Rhodes said he saw a trailer that had been knocked off its foundation with its roof covered in mud and debris, suggesting the water was a good 25-30 feet above its normal flow level.
Haner and Rhodes assisted agencies that may have been overwhelmed with 911 calls or needed a break. The duo helped transport patients between hospitals around Asheville and the surrounding area, including hospitals in smaller towns that needed to send patients to a Level 2 trauma center in Asheville.
The duo helped with roughly four to six transports per day while in North Carolina, depending on a town’s population and how much activity was happening that day. They largely went out to North Carolina communities like Spruce Pine (about 50 miles away) and Shelby (about 80 miles away) to transport patients.
“We did take some patients from the hospital back to their private residences just because they lacked transportation, or some of the people had preexisting conditions that made it difficult for them to be transported in their own vehicles,” Haner said.
Rhodes said that by the time they’d settled in their operations base, the water had subsided but there was still quite a bit of downed trees and other debris to deal with.
“A lot of the road and bridge crews had at least one lane of traffic opened up, but you always have to have that situational awareness of where you’re at. … There were still quite a few roads that were still closed due to either downed power lines or bridges, or just roads being washed out,” he said. “… We had to be diligent on our mapping, knowing what’s open and what is closed.”
Haner said he and Rhodes mainly worked 12-hour night shifts, but there were times while in Spruce Pine when they worked 24-hour shifts swapping calls with another emergency crew.
Close to 30 people are still believed to be missing in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene as of Tuesday. More than 200 people across the southeastern United States, including more than 90 in North Carolina, have died as a result of the storm.
Rhodes said the patients he and Haner transported back to their homes were thankful the duo was able to do that.
Although the duo was originally slated to stay in North Carolina through Saturday, North Carolina agencies started assuming primary relief duties and scaled things back. So, they’re glad to be coming home a bit earlier than expected.
mhollinshead@durangoherald.com
