Disaster Date:09/27/2024
North Carolina ERT
Hurricanes
What Happened
Thursday September 26, 2024 Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in the Big Bend area of Florida. The storm pushed inland into Georgia, South and North Carolina and southern Virginia. Western North Carolina appears to be especially hard hit. At least 200 people have died and many more are still missing in Buncombe County, NC. Rescue crews are battling mudslides, flood waters, washed out roadways and limited mobile service making search and rescue extremely difficult.
What MDS Is Doing
MDS work will focus on early response work that includes clearing roadways, debris, tree removal, assisting emergency personnel to gain access.
MDS is prepared to be in NC for the long haul. With your ongoing support, volunteers will repair and rebuild houses – as well as private access bridges that connect homes with the roadway. Check back regularly for volunteer opportunities.
Location
Asheville is a city in western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s known for a vibrant arts scene and historic architecture, including the dome-topped Basilica of Saint Lawrence. The vast 19th-century Biltmore estate displays artwork by masters like Renoir.
Stories from the Field
Weekly Reports
This week’s work was driveway and road repair for several families. The crews are experienced road builders and they worked hard completing projects. Work involved digging out and installing new culverts, grading roads and cleaning up debris...
This week’s crew from Pennsylvania were also young and energetic, completing over 20 jobs in spite of taking Thanksgiving Day off to do sightseeing, hiking and biking. Again, most of the work was felling or cutting up trees, and cleaning creeks...
This week’s crew of 18 weekly volunteers included people from Texas, Colorado and Pennsylvania. Some were new to MDS. Work continued clearing debris from yards and creeks, felling and cutting up trees. We had a bucket lift this week that...
