By Karl Plume and Nathan Frandino
ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (Reuters) – An army of private volunteers including muleteers and helicopter pilots are helping deliver supplies and rescue stranded victims after one of the deadliest storms in recent 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, untold thousands remained cut off around Asheville, with many roads impassable and telecommunications equipment damaged or destroyed. The isolation of mountain communities has complicated the massive relief effort undertaken by federal, state and local officials.
Stepping up to help are a number of volunteer groups who have supplemented official channels of disaster relief, part of a trend that began with the so-called Cajun Navy, an ad hoc flotilla of civilian volunteers who helped rescue people stranded in Louisiana by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Helene, which has killed more than 200 people, ranks as the most deadly named storm to hit the mainland United States since Katrina left nearly 1,400 dead, according to 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 slowly get restored and stranded storm victims are located.
One of the volunteer groups stepping into relief efforts is the Altitude Project, a group of private pilots that says it raised $200,000 in a 24-hour period this week to fund operations.
The project consists of an “affluent network” of like-minded citizens, said Andrew Everhart, who owns an insurance agency and is part of the effort. The 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, he said.
“It’s a lot of guys that have jets and helicopters and a lot of connections, and we just decided to lock arms and create our own thing and help people out,” Everhart said.
The Altitude Project has been running supplies from a 25,000 sq ft (2,320 sq m) warehouse in North Charlotte to communities near Asheville devastated by the storm, which dropped about 20 inches (500 mm) of rain in the region in a matter of hours.
“It usually takes the government three, four, five days to coordinate a response so we just decided to hop into action,” Everhart said.
The official response includes 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 on the ground, 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 to bolster those forces.
Tennessee-based flight company Aeroluxe Aviation brought its own ground crew and three Robinson 44 helicopters to the area, co-owner Brook Barzyk said.
Aeroluxe has carried out an estimated 150 deliveries of water, food, baby items, fuel and Starlink satellites, Barzyk said, with each helicopter able to carry 400 pounds (180 kg) of supplies.
“When we’re landing in some of the communities where we’re dealing with residents of the communities, everyone has been extremely thankful, and very, very helpful, to a point where we have to monitor them rushing the helicopter because they’re so excited, and it’s great for us, and it shows us that we’ve done the right thing by being here,” Barzyk said.
Acme Aero said in a Facebook post it has recovered 144 people on Monday, 120 of them over the age of 68. It also planned to deliver up to 200 Starlink satellites to rural fire departments, it said.
Still others have gone overland on foot – and hoof.
Sam Perkins posted a story on TikTok about how he hiked 11 miles (18 km) through mountain terrain to reach his parents in Little Switzerland, about an hour’s drive northeast of Asheville, after he was unable reach them following the storm.
“My dad said it was like seeing an apparition,” Perkins said. “I was of course elated and started bawling and gave him a big hug.”
The Mountain Mule Packer Ranch in Raeford, North Carolina, is running mule trains of supplies into isolated areas, according its Facebook posts.
Mountain Mule Packers specializes in “extreme terrain pack animal supply trains” and services to military units operating in remote and high-altitude areas, according to their website.
(Reporting by Karl Plume in Asheville, North Carolina, and Nathan Frandino in Swannanoa, North Carolina; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Frank McGurty and Tom Hogue)
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