Pilots are a Lifeline After the Storm

When Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region on Tuesday, September 26, 2024, it was a dangerous category 4 with winds of 140 mph (220 kmph) but much of the devastation was inland. That’s because the storm stalled over much of the southern US.

Hurricane Helene left a trail of destruction over six southeastern states, reported AP News from the coast to the Appalachian Mountains leaving many communities completely cut-off. One of the hardest hit communities was Asheville, North Carolina where main routes into the city were washed away. But this didn’t stop volunteers from delivering badly needed supplies by air to Asheville and other communities.

Angels with wings
It didn’t take long for aviation groups in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee to start a grassroots effort to bring supplies to the people who were impacted by the storm, according to the Aviation Week Network.

“We quickly realized as a community with the resources we have being in aviation, we would very quickly be able to get donations into the hands of those in these smaller communities that would not be on the radar for the National Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Joel Amick, director of artificial intelligence for a financial services company and a volunteer with the Carolina Aviators Network (CAN) organization told Aviation Week.

CAN quickly got the word out that they were looking for volunteer pilots, aircraft, and supplies. The group realized that larger areas would get help faster so they prioritized smaller and harder to reach rural areas.

The group assembled a spreadsheet of every airport within a 40-mile radius south and southeast of Asheville and they started using 10 of the airports. There was a special need for helicopters that could bring supplies like diapers, baby formula, insulin, and additional medications to isolated areas. The helicopters operated from Hickory Regional Airport in Hickory, North Carolina.

“We’ve been pushing heli-ops into Black Mountain since there’s no way to get there,” Amick said. “Roads are either not passable, there are trees all over them, or they are not there anymore.”

Operation airdrop
The relief organization Operation Airdrop logged over 600 missions to North Carolina and Tennessee, reported NBC News. The planes, one-after-another taxied down a runway of the Concord  Regional Airport in North Carolina where volunteers loaded them with food, water, and medicine. After 30-minutes the planes were in the sky again bringing the supplies where they were most needed. In two days, 350 fixed-winged airplanes took off.

“Yesterday, we were moving so fast we were beating the turnaround times at O’Hare [Chicago’s  International Airport] ,” Operation Airdrop coordinator Shaun Carroll told NBC; “We were moving.

“The amount of supplies that have been donated, the number of pilots who have shown up with their own planes and at their own expense, has been amazing,” said Carroll. “Some of the pilots have been flying in with their planes already packed with supplies.”

One pilot, Ryan Holt, a 48-year-old anesthesiologist, from Wisconsin heard about the devastation and flew his Cessna 182 to Concord. He flew supplies to Banner Elk, a remote North Carolina town more than 130 miles north.

“It was some challenging flying,” Holt said. “I landed on a private airstrip that was opened to us by the owner.” While he could not fly night missions, he said it was a positive experience and that the volunteers really put their hearts and souls into the effort.

Companies like FedEx donated the use of their planes and many businesses have given donations that were flown to the hard-hit communities. With the reopening of roads, Operation Airdrop has shifted to ground operations, according to the organization.

Donations to help the people who have been impacted by this disaster are still needed. You can give to highly rated disaster relief organizations through Charity Navigator.

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