Firefighters return home after assisting rescue and recovery efforts in western North Carolina

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — In western North Carolina, rescue and recovery operations continue days after the remnants of Hurricane Helene caused widespread flooding, destroying roads, homes, and businesses.

A group of New Hanover County firefighters were already in western North Carolina for training when Helene hit last Thursday, so they quickly mobilized and began helping out where they could.

Within 18 hours, they, along with North Carolina Search and Rescue Task Force 11 and the Office of the State Fire Marshal, had conducted between 10 and 30 rescues.

Sheldon Miller and Matthew Hoffman were just two of the firefighters on the ground as flooding began in the town of Old Fort.

They said the majority of rescues they did were within Old Fort, which saw as much as 4 and a half feet of flooding.

Hoffman said the flooding they faced was far different from what they’re used to here in the Cape Fear.

“The pace of the water is far different than what we experience down here in the east,” Hoffman said. “Down here in the east, we kind of get all of the water that comes down from the mountains and the other counties and it kind of just spreads out. And its just more like widespread flooding, I guess you could say. But its just so much more rapid. It’s crazy to describe, but its far, far different than what, far, far different than what we experience down here.”

Miller said one particular rescue up a mountain where three people were saved from a landslide will forever stay with him, due to the generosity, support and actions of residents.

“Got some of his close friends to bring out some very heavy equipment and later we found out a lot of those locals had lost everything themselves and they still got out there and did what they could,” Miller said. “They helped us clear trees, they helped us clear mud. Some of the locals jumped on their heavy equipment. They grabbed trees, they grabbed dirt, they filled the bridge in from the creek bed all the way up to level, found some houses that had been torn down, used some of the wood from that to create another bridge.”

Both Miller and Hoffman said if needed, they would go back out west to help in the recovery efforts but aren’t sure when that might happen.