Boots on the ground

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, October 8th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Relief efforts in North Carolina.

It’s been eleven days since Hurricane Helene slammed into the mountains of North Carolina. While power, water, and cell service are being restored relatively quickly in larger towns like Asheville and the college town of Boone, many rural communities remain without water, power, cell service, or federal aid.

REICHARD: Last week WORLD correspondent Caleb Welde traveled into some of the hardest-hit areas to bring us this report.

AUDIO: [Truck door shuts, starts engine]

CALEB WELDE: Eric Brinker climbs into his Toyota Tundra. He's the ring leader. The husband and dad of three wasn't sure how he was going to lead six vehicles through the various roadblocks between here and the harder hit areas west of here. But then a state special agent stopped by Brinker’s shop and agreed to lead him in.

RADIO/BRINKER: We’ve got him– he’s got the blues on.

Most of the men following behind Brinker work for him.

BRINKER: So I have a construction business, like a general contracting business. We do commercial and residential.

His electricians are in especially high demand.

BRINKER: That road is about to give there.

The trucks and vans are loaded with chainsaws, food, water, fuel, and generators.

BRINKER: Today we bought 11. So about $11,000.

WELDE: And who, who's buying the generators?

BRINKER: Uh my company. Haven't figured out a reimbursement plan yet. [laughs]

He’s also keeping everyone on the payroll– though money seems somewhat down his list of priorities. Brinker’s top priority is checking in on those in need. One of his friends had just gotten engaged.

BRINKER: Nobody could get in touch with him. We finally drove out to find them and realized the house wasn't there, and one of the neighbors said he was at the hospital, so we went straight there.

His fiance was killed when the house slid and his mother-in-law is in critical condition.

BRINKER: You couldn't have guessed that where they were, that that would happen. Not likely, you know?

AUDIO: [HELICOPTER FLIES OVER]

As the convoy nears the community of Newland, it pulls onto a very active airfield.

Small airplanes and helicopters taking off and landing—loading and unloading. A young woman apparently just off a helicopter holds several personal belongings while another woman escorts her away. One of the helicopter pilots is emptying a five gallon fuel jug into his aircraft. He’s seen a lot from the air.

DEITRICH: Down in the river valleys, especially the larger rivers, so the North Toe river, the Cane river, the Nolichucky river valleys… devastation. Railroad tracks that look like spaghetti, banks eaten out, roads fallen in, massive, massive amount of damage there.

The pilot says many communities remain cut off, while others…

DEITRICH: So many people with excavators, private little excavators, skid steers, tractors out there working on it, rebuilding their own roadways just a little bit north of here, near Roaring Creek.

Back in the truck with Brinker, things get worse as they venture further west.

BRINKER: There was all houses down there. They’re gone.

Another of Brinker’s employees leads a volunteer search and rescue team.

BRINKER: They're looking for people in this basin today.

The group heads to Riverside School next, where refugees have apparently just run out of tap water.

BRINKER: This is total devastation. I mean, this is a federal DOT bridge. Broken in half.

The school parking lot is half full of RVs who fled here during the storm. Suzanne Garland and her husband are among those who fled to the school. She says so far, the most Federal help they’ve seen is a Chinook fly over.

GARLAND: These local people, and the people from the outside, like, all these volunteers, like you guys, and these guys that just got here, like, that's what's been keeping us going.

National Guardsmen in Boone said the size and weight of their vehicles restrict their progress into smaller communities.

A mile from the school, Derek Buchanan is talking to about ten men circled inside Spear Country Store. Buchanan has run the place for fifteen years. The Monday after the storm, he says almost all one hundred of his construction guys showed up at the store.

BUCHANAN: I said, Look, guys, you know I, I don't, I don't know what to say, other than we love y'all. We've been praying for everybody you know, and to see you come up and want to help everybody else even know, you've lost everything, and you lost family, you lost your houses. And man we prayed out there, and man we about had revival in the parking lot.

All day, a small helicopter has been delivering in the field next to the store.

BUCHANAN: I was able to take the insulin and split it up and take some to Green Valley. They didn't have none, been able to take some insulin to Frank fire department here. We've been asking medical needs, what do you need? You know, prescriptions, those things. And then when we get it, we've got guys waiting, all local, just all local people. And they're, they're taking it out and getting it to em.

Those that can make it to the grocery store, shop for free. Outside, Buchanan is cooking meat with what’s left of his propane.

BUCHANAN: I know today we fed 700 people hot meals, all volunteers out of the front, out here was under our tents.

He looks tired– though not exhausted– and appears to be dedicating a significant amount of personal resources to help his neighbors. One of them said he has a house in Tennessee he could’ve evacuated to.

BUCHANAN: I've always been one that I feel like God's, anything that I has is from him, you know. And, you know, so that's just, that's kind of mine and my wife Erin's mindset is we want to, we want to go out and if we can help somebody, we're going to help somebody.

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