(WGHP) — One year ago, the remnants of Hurricane Helene moved through western North Carolina.
Communities were destroyed, and piles of debris from what were once homes and businesses were left behind.
As rescue and recovery missions progressed, teams from the Triad, including the Greensboro Fire Department’s Search and Rescue Team, traveled west to help.
One year later, members of that team shared their experience in their efforts to help western North Carolina in the immediate days and weeks that followed Helene.
63 Greensboro firefighters were dispatched to western North Carolina to save lives from the damage and destruction Helene brought.
Andy Jones, battalion chief of special operations at the GFD, said it was a storm like no other.
“The task force has been deployed on many hurricanes throughout the year, but Helene was a one-of-a-kind storm,” Jones said.
Jones was part of the first crew deployed to Transylvania County, helping protect the communities in Helene’s path and helping to save the lives of many.
The one that sticks with him the most when dispatched was the rescue of a young child.
“When the storm hit, we did have a few rescues, a good amount of evacuations. We had a mudslide where we were able to get a ten-year-old child out of that house,” Jones said.
It was a storm that wreaked havoc and posed many challenges for the department.
Bryan Vickery, assistant chief of special operations at the GFD, said when looking back at it a year later, they learned a lot.
“The experiences that our guys and our personnel got out of that. We had a lot of wins. We had some losses, but I think that for the state as a whole that the next event that occurs, … we will implement those lessons learned from Helene,” Vickery said.
It was a deployment Jones will never forget.
“We do take a sense of pride in it. We train for it. We try to prepare for it. But to be able to go out and execute and … be there for the citizens of North Carolina and be able to provide that response and that assistance in their time of need is huge,” Jones said
Jones also told FOX8 they have equipment and a roster prepared to respond if North Carolina Emergency Management asks for assistance during the hurricane season.
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