North Carolina communities come together after Helene disaster

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Bill Wadell is in Swannanoa, North Carolina, where many communities in the surrounding area unite together in their recovery and relief efforts after Helene's disastrous flooding.

Transcript

00:00We've got clear blue skies good flying conditions for these pilots the helicopters that you saw here behind us earlier this morning stuck in the

00:06Fog they were able to take off and get more emergency supplies out

00:10And it may get noisy here because we are expecting more helicopters shortly to land in this field and you could see their priority today

00:15Is getting this food this bottled water and especially critical medicine including insulin and heart medication

00:22To people who lost nearly everything in this storm

00:25And they are still stuck up in some of these remote communities in the mountains a lot of these families

00:30They were prepared for the storm. They are used to dealing with rough weather and the need to be self-reliant

00:35But again, some of these families lost nearly everything their stockpile of supplies

00:39Some of them lost their homes their cars cell phone signal is still out and many roads have been washed away

00:45Now this operation it all started with people who were frantic to get in touch with loved ones

00:50They weren't sure if they made it through the storm and they used social media to connect with

00:55Helicopter pilots with private helicopter owners to get this mission started. They say they couldn't wait

01:00They couldn't sit at home or in their cars. They had to do something now. This rapid response has grown quickly

01:06It started Friday and over the weekend with just a few people a few helicopters and pilots

01:11But now in the past 24 hours, we had 28 different helicopters land at this makeshift base camp

01:17It's right next to a business that was washed out. They lost everything

01:21Adam Smith helped organize this operation and now they're they have more relief groups more pilots and more helicopters on the way all

01:28Volunteer and they still need more help

01:32They're just absolute champions and they are just amazing human beings with huge hearts and not once has anybody said hey

01:39How do we get reimbursed or how can we get paid or how can we not one time?

01:43Has anybody ever brought that up? It's just it's just it's just really phenomenal. This is not a fast recovery

01:48This is not a three-day rescue effort and then everybody can go to bed and wake up the next morning

01:52We have hundreds and hundreds of displaced people. We have we have thousands of people still

01:58I think tens of thousands of people still without power and still without active running water because the reservoirs were damaged

02:04So so so badly we can't let people forget about this

02:11These volunteers flew in

02:1340,000 pounds of emergency supplies in just the past 24 hours

02:18Including insulin and that critical medicine. They also helped one woman with a heart condition get off the mountain yesterday afternoon

02:24We know that they've also been flying more people out of these hardest-hit areas

02:27They are asking for donations to help pay for fuel to keep this operation going as long as possible

02:33I posted the link to their GoFundMe account on my ex page or also known as my Twitter account now more groups

02:40Organized volunteers. They are showing up to help at this facility today and

02:44Bernie and Ari these folks are saying please be careful where you donate. We're seeing a lot of new things pop up online

02:51There's a lot of good happening a lot of volunteers here on the ground from different organizations

02:56Tragically during these major disasters we have seen scams in the past. We know that that's happening

03:01We're being told by some of these folks that they are also encountering these

03:06Misleading accounts, they're taking pictures. They make it sound like they're legit. And unfortunately, that's the kind of thing that happens

03:12So I can tell you I have verified with this group. They showed me their account their link. This is the real deal here

03:18because there's a lot of links flying around so they're gonna try and keep this going as much as possible and

03:23Bernie and Ari they appreciated the update that flying weather is going to be good today

03:28Obviously we deal with fog in the mornings here in the mountains

03:31But for the next few days things are looking good for the rescue recovery operations

03:35They say this is going to take quite a while. And again, they're big concern with another storm brewing down in the tropics

03:41They're not worried about weather impacts. We know we're not expecting those here. They're concerned about the attention

03:47Lose attention. They're gonna lose donations. We often see that within a week or two after these disasters

03:51So they're asking people please help today if you can they're trying to get as much of this as possible even behind me

03:57They want to get this up to the mountains as fast as they can

03:59Yeah, Bill I shared your link shared it again, it's on my Facebook and Bill's a very trustworthy person

04:05So I know if he's posting something it's something I feel confident about sharing and posting

04:08So anyone who can make a donation today and make a difference for those folks who are stranded in Western, North Carolina

04:13That would be much appreciated

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