Putting in the work: Responders of all stripes converge on Haywood County following Helene
Swiftwater rescues have been common throughout Western North Carolina since Hurricane Helene hit. Haywood County Emergency Services photo
On the morning of Sept. 27, as rain fell steadily from the pre-dawn sky, Travis Donaldson took a drive around the eastern end of Haywood County. Donaldson, the county’s emergency services director, made a lap around all the appropriate areas, finishing up in Cruso with the intention of turning around and heading back toward Waynesville, where an emergency operations center had already been set up.
But when he started toward the north end of the narrow valley, the East Fork of the Pigeon River, already swollen from several inches of rain in the previous couple of days, had risen up, leaving him stuck, cut off from the rest of the county. While it was frustrating to be isolated, he found a way to make the most of his time. Although, as a supervisor, he normally tries to stay out of operations, he started working with other emergency responders in Cruso to do whatever he could.
Donaldson found himself at the Cruso Community Center where about 90 residents had sought shelter since it’s on relatively high ground. However, as the East Fork of the Pigeon River spilled out of its banks and continued to rise, Donaldson and the other first responders considered their options.
Although Donaldson was nervous about what might be happening elsewhere, he couldn’t quite fathom the scope of sheer devastation just miles away as waterways all over the county left their banks, leaving several swaths of destruction that have already claimed five lives in Haywood alone.
Leading up to the storm, all indications pointed to Helene being devastating, perhaps even worse than the floods in Cruso and Canton in 2021 caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred.
Donaldson and other officials in the county have frequently said “it’s not a matter of if, but when” the region gets hit with another major flooding disaster.
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“Every time I see a storm forming in the gulf, it’s the first thing I think about,” he said.
But in this case, while the storm was far worse than what was seen in 2021, many are considering the response in Haywood County to be a success, something they credit to lessons learned from the previous flood. In addition, unlike with Fred which hit all at once, in this case responders had the advantage of knowing days ahead of time Tropical Storm Helene posed a serious threat. While Donaldson said the response was not without its hiccups, he is still proud of how well responders from all over were able to come together to save lives.
“We knew we were going to get hammered,” he said. “But we knew what to expect, what to prepare for.”
Soldiers stop and smile while unloading supplies at Jonathan Valley Elementary School. Jerry Bartle photo
THE PLAN
The preparation for the disaster Helene delivered began in Haywood County as soon as the 2021 cleanup from Fred commenced. While the warning sirens the county approved hadn’t yet been installed, new flood gauges placed around the county’s waterways that provide live readings of water levels were invaluable. In addition, several people interviewed said debris removal following Fred, which was continuing almost right up to the point Helene made landfall in Florida, lessened the severity of the flooding in Cruso, which was spared the same level of carnage seen in 2021. In 2021, one of the key problems was that buildups of debris during the onset of the flood acted as dams, which when broken released massive walls of water downstream all at once.
County and local leaders held daily briefings beginning the Monday before the storm hit Haywood, and many of those folks were in contact with state and federal officials.
“That seems like it was months ago now,” said Haywood County Manager Bryant Morehead.
Morehead said that while big picture solutions and contingencies were discussed, perhaps the most valuable thing was updates provided by National Weather Service. The forecasts grew grimmer by the day, but they brought leaders into the right headspace to deal with what was coming. This storm was not to be underestimated, and everyone knew it. Morehead said that during the Wednesday meeting, about 48 hours before the storm hit Haywood, the weather service predicted almost exactly what ended up happening in specific places across the county, which gave officials leeway to stage resources and rescue teams strategically.
“It’s a good thing we had that,” Morehead said, “because Fred was nowhere near as bad as this.”
To get ahead of what was guaranteed to be a large volume of people needing to evacuate, the county also put a request to receive help from Task Force 8, a team of 30 personnel out of Raleigh that specializes in technical rescue operations. Taskforce 8 turned out to help with some of the more technical swiftwater and mountain rescues, along with a team from Cherokee, one from Winston-Salem and numerous teams from out of state. While flooding events usually only require help from neighboring counties, everyone in the region was dealing with catastrophic flooding, so that wasn’t possible.
There was also planning happening at the local level.
For Canton Fire Chief Kevin Wheeler, memories of Fred drove actions ahead of Helene. Although Wheeler has only been chief since February 2022, he has been with the department about 30 years, meaning he also endured the floods that came in 2004 that he said had set the previous high-water mark in the flood-prone fire station.
This truck was swept up in the floodwaters and deposited here in downtown Canton. Cory Vaillancourt photo
This time around, the water reached about 14.5 feet up on the walls.
“It hasn’t ever gotten to that level,” Wheeler said.
Ahead of the storm, Canton firefighters moved stuff out of the station, and throughout the storm, Wheeler’s department operated out of a separate location with teams also stationed on each side of the Pigeon River; during previous floods, the swollen Pigeon River made the other side of town inaccessible. That proved beneficial with Helene when a man was stranded in a vehicle on Blackwell Avenue, an area that may have been inaccessible if all personnel were operating out of the station. In this case, Canton firefighters and police officers were able to break a window of a submerged vehicle to pull an elderly man to safety.
There were numerous similar rescues in Waynesville. Fortunately, the Waynesville Fire Department got a swift water boat with a 30 horsepower motor this summer. Then, as the storm approached, they scrambled to get another one. While the newest boat doesn’t have a motor, Webb said it saw plenty of use during Helene. Waynesville firefighters upstaffed beginning Thursday and had people staged to respond at about 3 a.m. Friday just as the rains intensified.
“Our thoughts were, we’d go help Canton and Clyde and areas that normally flood like Cruso, but we had more damage than we anticipated in Waynesville,” Webb said. “We pulled people off their porches, off the tops of their cars.”
In Cruso, planning for Helene brought back traumatic memories of Fred. Cruso Assistant Fire Chief Daryl Henderson said that during their last brief prior to the storm arriving, although everyone was locked in and wanting to avoid complacency, some couldn’t help but let their minds wander toward their darkest memories.
“We met with our firemen. We gathered everyone around and told them the dire news and what they should expect,” Henderson said. “There were some teary eyes around the room because, at least for us in leadership, there’s some fashion of PTSD from Tropical Storm Fred.”
THE DELUGE
Thursday evening, as expected, first responders of all stripes were put on alert. In the early Friday morning darkness, the word came to get to work, so the various responders from various agencies with various skills reported where they were needed and got to work.
In Waynesville, the geographical and population center of the county, swiftwater rescues were already underway by about 4 a.m. in an area not used to flooding, as Browning Branch in the Allens Creek area threatened houses. Within an hour flooding spread to numerous spots around Waynesville, already cutting people off before the sun was even up, all while broader evacuations began across the county as already normally placid raged out of their banks.
Once dawn broke, responders breathed a sigh of relief as they could see what was going on around them, but it also created a new problem. People began coming outside to see the damage, which created even more dangerous situations and necessitated more rescues. Some even tried to drive around looking to find a dry path to higher ground. A few went around barricades, which led to some of the most dangerous rescues throughout the day.
As floodwaters continued to rise and drown towns across Western North Carolina, new challenges emerged, from downed trees blocking roads and cutting off access to some areas to increasing landslides to live powerlines falling and draping across roadways. Local responders took calls for gas leaks, transformer fires and even a few structure fires. There were even calls indicating that houses were floating down waterways with people still inside. In one 911 call, a man said he was able to get out of his trailer just in time to watch it get picked up and carried away with his wife still inside.
Even Jonathan Creek, which most Maggie Valley residents have never seen leave its banks, created problems, washing away bridges and leading to several water rescues in difficult areas, including one along Moody Farm Road where 10 people were trapped in a home as water lapped at the windows.
“I don’t know how to get up there to get them,” an exasperated responder said over the radio, lamenting how quickly Jonathan Creek had risen. Eventually, it was decided that a ladder truck would be best to ford the rising waters.
Scanner traffic indicated that the situation became more dire as more roadways and bridges washed out, including Haywood County’s most vital. At one point, someone asked over the radio whether Interstate 40 was still passable for emergency vehicles.
“Just shut the 40 down,” came the response. “It’s gone.”
At this point, responders were already stacking calls, meaning they had multiple pending rescues at one time and had to prioritize based on location and severity. In areas that were already cut off for one reason or another, panicked people looking for rescue were told to shelter in place. No one would be able to save them. Even some of the responders found themselves stuck on “islands” meaning they had zero access to any way out of their current location and were directed to park on the highest ground available.
Among the people who was helping in the initial rescue effort was Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood). Like many in the area, he said he woke up at about 4 o’clock and felt restless. He was out the door by about 5 a.m. and after driving around the county for a bit, he headed to Waynesville, threw on his waders and knocked on doors to let people know the water was coming up.
Pless’ original plan before he got caught in Waynesville was to meet his son, Jared, who heads up the Haywood County Rescue Squad. Both men are qualified swiftwater rescue technicians and Jerad had a rescue boat in tow.
They disassembled their equipment and headed to Canton, where they’d quickly find work.
First, they encountered someone trapped in a house in the Beaverdam area. He said the water was about 300-400 feet across, and in that case, someone with a truck was able to find a safer way to the home than they could.
At one location just outside of town, they got a guy, his cat and his dog out of a home that was quickly becoming inundated. In downtown Canton itself, they rescued a man, a woman and six dogs who were trapped in a vehicle after going around a barricade.
“While we were working on getting them out, there was another vehicle that went around the barricade and got stuck in the water,” Pless said.
That afternoon, once the sun came out and the water began receding, responders started on their list of hundreds upon hundreds of welfare checks. Those welfare checks were either requested by out-of-town family or logged by responders as the disaster unfolded. As of the beginning of this week, even as drones and human remains detection K-9s are still working along riverbanks and through landslides, those checks were finally winding toward completion.
THE GREAT CHAMBERS MOUNTAIN BUSHWHACK
A large part of any disaster relief effort is maintaining communications. In this case, even emergency communications went down, meaning first responders could have been operating in the dark. However, Zach Koontz with Haywood County EMS was able to get a Starlink kit set up ahead of the storm, which brought back to life those vital communication channels.
In addition to emergency communications, during disasters, it’s also vital to keep the public informed.
With this in mind, in the wake of Tropical Storm Fred in 2021, Haywood County Emergency Services Public Information Office Allison Richmond had an idea inspired by one of her heroes, Genie Chance. Chance was an Alaskan journalist and broadcaster who would eventually become elected to multiple state-level elected positions. In 1964, a massive earthquake devastated much of that state, and with so much infrastructure destroyed, Chance took to the airwaves for several days with few breaks to share lifesaving information, dispatch first responders and provide calm clarity in the wake of devastation.
Richmond, who has for years kept a photo of Chance at her desk, considered that FM radio could be a lifeline to people cut off from information. She got up with Terryll Evans, who owns and operates Canton’s WPTL, which has an FM repeater on Chambers Mountain that can boost the signal to reach just about the whole county.
Haywood County Emergency Services Public Information Officer Allison Richmond hits the airwaves. Kyle Perrotti photo
“I called her up and said, ‘crazy idea,’ … She didn’t even let me finish my sentence. She said, ‘We’ll do it. anything you need,’” Richmond said.
That plan became protocol. Richmond recalled that once the flooding began this go-round, Donaldson assigned her with executing that plan. The first step was to track down Evans. Evans recalled that Saturday morning, about 24 hours after the flooding hit, a firefighter pulled into her driveway and requested that she join him downtown, where she ran into Richmond.
The two got to work, but the problem was that the road to Chambers Mountain was littered with dozens of fallen trees. This is where a group of county workers, along with Matthew Hooper — Haywood County’s state forest service ranger — stepped in with chainsaws, a bulldozer and a good deal of gumption. Hooper and his crew cut the trees up and the dozer pushed them out of the way.
“We had to make the road wide enough that a propane truck could get up Chambers Mountain,” Hooper said.
With the help of an electrician employed by the county, a 2,000-gallon propane tank was brought up and hooked to a generator. Richmond said an electrician who works for the county was able to rig up the generator to the FM translator, and WPTL came back to life, and since then Richmond has been able to hit the airwaves and deliver vital information to hungry ears on a regular basis.
Evans could breathe a sigh of relief, but with tears in her eyes, she recalled to SMN how helpless she’d felt in the two days that the station was down.
“I worried that I couldn’t get all the information to our listeners, and they didn’t know what was coming,” she said. “I felt dead in the water. Any time my station goes off, I go into panic mode.”
THE EXTENDED RESPONSE
In the mornings since Helene hit, responders have mustered at a Lake Junaluska dining hall at 7 a.m. to grab some quick breakfast and a cup of coffee while they receive their morning briefings.
On Thursday, Oct. 3, the 469 federal, state and local personnel present for the briefings were told that the westbound lanes of I-40 near the Tennessee state line were showing signs of breaking off and that only one small lane of travel would be available, meaning only one vehicle could pass through at a time — news that elicited some audible groans. One man talked about safety, noting that they’d had two injuries the prior day and that as rescuers become more fatigued and perhaps even more complacent, slips and falls would become more likely.
Following each day’s briefings, everyone grabs a sack lunch, goes their separate ways and sets into their work until they again meet at the cafeteria for dinner in the evening.
Hundreds of responders mustered for several mornings in a row to eat breakfast and receive their briefings. Kyle Perrotti photo
A crucial part of the extended response that many people interviewed by The Smoky Mountain News wanted to highlight is how grateful they are for the hospitality extended by the community, and especially Lake Junaluska. Folks from the Lake Junaluska Assembly not only served two hot meals and gallons upon gallons of fresh coffee every day, they also housed the responders throughout the grounds. For Lake Junaluska Executive Director Ken Howle, it’s all part of living up to a mission of service in the name of Jesus Christ, and in this case that meant providing “sanctuary” from the massive stress and physical exhaustion built up each day in the field.
Howle said the transition from housing folks for retreats and religious functions to housing tired first responders has been interesting.
“Our parking lots have transitioned from having church buses and retreat participants to emergency workers and recovery workers,” he said.
Like so many interviewed for this story, it was hard for Howle to suppress his emotion when talking about the human resiliency he’s seen, including from his own staff, many of whom moved onto the grounds in the wake of the storm so they could work up to 14-hour days serving food, cleaning and doing laundry.
“You can tell a lot about people during times of crisis. I couldn’t be more proud every day to work alongside this dedicated staff who have left their homes to move onto the grounds to keep those workers nourished and rested so they could do the work they do,” he said. “It’s not a complete surprise because I work with some amazing people, but it’s reassuring to see the true grit and determination.”
One of the teams that made the trip to Haywood County was Wisconsin Taskforce 1, known as WI-TF1. The Wisconsin taskforce employs operators from 21 different departments. For this mission, a 16-man team with four swift-water boats headed south.
The Wisconsin taskforce gears up. Kyle Perrotti photo
Leaders on the Wisconsin taskforce saw that a call went out for out-of-state emergency response personnel to come to North Carolina ahead of Helene’s arrival on a system called the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), which blasts the information to all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories. They submitted an offer to respond, which was accepted by North Carolina Emergency Management.
Coming to Western North Carolina was the first time the team had operated in the field, even though many members had trained for up to a decade prior to this deployment. They arrived the morning after the storm hit and got right to work.
Team leader Bob Zimmerman said the men were happy to get the chance to operate and especially to serve a community in need.
“We were waiting for the opportunity to go out the door and help a region,” Zimmerman said. “It’s a huge morale booster for our guys. You don’t wish an emergency of this magnitude on anybody, but you want to go out and do the things you’re trained to do.”
The Wisconsin taskforce was assigned a 13.5-mile section of the Pigeon River and worked in conjunction with the Crabtree Iron Duff Fire Department. Zimmerman said the first thing he noticed was how well-prepared the local firefighters he worked with were and how committed they were to their community.
“We spent most of our time connected with them because we didn’t have communications reachback, but they did,” Zimmerman said. “They were absolutely phenomenal. Our deployment looks entirely different if we don’t have the partnership we did with those guys.”
In addition to conducting swiftwater rescues, the Wisconsin taskforce conducted numerous land-based operations that required hiking into remote areas, especially those cut off by landslides or floodwater, where they’d make contact with residents to see if they needed evacuation or necessary supplies like food or water. For this, along with their proficiency in swift water rescue, the Wisconsin taskforce built a strong reputation during its week in the region. Zimmerman said that one thing that helped is that he brought two operators who are proficient in using Search and Rescue Common Operating Platform (SARCOP), through which responders can log what they find at any residence to ensure work isn’t duplicated.
When asked how his team adapted to the rugged terrain of the Blue Ridge Mountains for its first operation in the field, Zimmerman said the men performed well not because the geography was familiar, but because they are in excellent physical shape, which helps them adapt to the steep slopes.
“If you aren’t at that fitness level, you’re not going to be effective, and we want to be effective,” he said.
In addition to heaping praise on the local firefighters he worked with, Zimmerman noted both how beautiful Western North Carolina and its people are. Hailing from a rural area himself, he said the people had strong values like he was used to, although he did joke that there may have been a couple of communication issues.
“I needed a translator for some of them, and some of them needed a translator for me,” he said.
In the days following the flood, overland rescues proceeded as landslides developed and more people who’d been isolated were identified. Many of the more technical rescues required the use of ropes and other equipment. Haywood County Assistant Emergency Coordinator Cody Parton is a nationally renowned expert in such rescues and was on hand at several slides.
Like so many who spoke with SMN, he was humble, even reticent, when talking about the people he’d pulled from dire situations.
“I can try to tell you as much as I can, but I don’t have a great story here,” he said.
Parton recalled one rescue in the mountains above Maggie Valley where two elderly people and a dog were trapped in what was left of their home. He said that for some rescues, crews would spend anywhere from three to six hours just working to access people who were cut off or trapped, often while the ground was still shifting beneath them. That slide in Maggie Valley was one of the tougher ones.
“There are just massive amounts of debris — huge trees, boulders, rocks,” he said. “And the mud just compounds it. You’re in mud that could be anywhere from a foot to four feet deep, and that can be very treacherous to try to walk through. Then, once you reach the person who needs help, you have to figure out the best means to get them back out. Is it back through where you just went, or do you need to go through an entire new area?”
In addition, these kinds of rescues can be tricky if people are panicked to the point that they may not be able to process instructions from the responders. Parton admitted that can be a major challenge and that it’s important to gain people’s trust in a short amount of time by building a foundation with the person from the moment contact is made. However, Parton said this can also happen well before a crisis sets in if responders in a community gain a reputation for being good stewards who care about their fellow residents. In someone’s worst hour, they want to have faith that help is on the way.
But Parton did admit that sometimes the situation necessitates a more brash approach.
“You just have to lay it out for them, what the high possibility of a [bad] outcome will be,” he said.
Unlike many of the people from other states who selflessly volunteered to come aid in search and rescue and recovery efforts, Parton is a local boy, and responding to this storm was personal for him, and he was happy to contribute however he could.
“I’ve always loved helping people … there’s an instant gratification,” he said.
THE AID EFFORT
Of the 469 personnel present for the brief last Thursday, many were working in the aid distribution effort. Each day, Air National Guard Chinook helicopters based as far away as Rochester, New York, would bring in food, water and medicine. These choppers were then unloaded at the Smoky Mountain Event Center, which was operating under the security of two teams of Hartnett County deputies working 12-hour shifts.
From there, pallets full of supplies were moved around by a couple of Haywood County Public Works employees driving forklifts to the right spots, from which they were loaded into all kinds of vehicles, even ambulances, and brought to distribution sites, such as the nearby Woodland Baptist Church.
The aid effort worked efficiently due to volunteers, county workers and National Guard soldiers and airmen, but it was coordinated by a five-man group from Kentucky Emergency Management’s Incident Management Team. Each person on the team brought specific skills to the table that could be employed in any disaster recovery effort, said Incident Commander Dustin Heiser.
Like the team from Wisconsin and others from out of state, Heiser submitted an offer to respond to the disaster in North Carolina via the EMAC, and that offer was accepted. Heiser and his staff were ready to go, and once they were on the road about an hour away from the region, they received their orders. He said it usually goes that way.
“Will we manage a search and rescue operation? Will we manage a central receiving and distribution point? Will we assist an emergency operation center? We don’t know until we get into it,” Heiser said.
Heiser said that, in a sense, it’s nice that his team doesn’t deploy a lot because there aren’t too many disasters that merit such a response, but he’s proud to have the opportunity and is always ready to help in whatever way he can.
Every operation has its own nuances and challenges, but Hesier said that since he and his team arrived last Sunday, every day has gotten a bit smoother. While Heiser’s team seemed to be doing a good job coordinating operations to keep inventory on track and supplies rolling out, he also credited the hard work of others.
“This is just a fantastic group, including the great volunteers and the National Guardsman,” he said. “Our team is just here to help.”
The folks working to load and unload supplies laughed and joked as they did their duty, rarely stopping for even a few minutes to take a break. When asked how morale has remained high, Heiser said they were treated to multiple mood boosts each day.
“When big helicopters land anywhere, it’s cool to see,” he said with a grin.
More seriously, Heiser noted that in his experience, the worst circumstances — and Haywood County is enduring some of the worst anywhere in recent memory — tend to draw out the best in people, bringing folks of all stripes together with one common goal in mind.
“Whether it’s the Guard, our team, the volunteers, they want to be here because they want to help,” he said. “I’m extremely happy, and our team is extremely happy to be here, not because of the circumstances, but because these are the things we do. We want to support and help when these bad things happen.”
DISINFORMATION — ‘TURN THAT GARBAGE OFF’
Despite the prevailing opinion that efforts — at least in Haywood County — have been better than average, a slew of disinformation has emerged online that can hurt people’s faith in the response efforts while also hurting the morale on the ground.
The social media accounts spreading these rumors, many of which appear to be bots, are playing on the fact that a disaster like this leaves nerves raw and people vulnerable. Those looking to pedal disinformation can be successful by appealing to how people feel during this scary and uncertain time. At this juncture, these attempts are even more effective due to the lack of trust in the government created in so many during the COVID pandemic. In many cases, conspiracy theories tied to the disaster response are given false credibility by offering vague sources, sometimes even just the words “I know someone on the ground.”
Some of the rumors floating around are that FEMA is stealing money and property, the government has left stacks of bodies in certain areas and that the government created the hurricane with the aim of seizing land for a large lithium mine. Even former President Donald Trump has piled on in recent days as he campaigns to regain control of the White House, posting on X that after visiting Georgia, he wanted to come to North Carolina but couldn’t access the hard-hit areas.
“I’ll be there shortly, but don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas. MAGA!” he wrote.
However, elected officials from both parties — who have also been working together to respond to this disaster — have been working hard to dispel those rumors. One of the first to speak out against the disinformation was state Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Macon), who offered a forceful statement on Facebook laced with facts refuting some of the most common rumors.
“This is going to take MONTHS if not years to overcome. Government will play a role in this cleanup,” Corbin wrote. “We are going to make sure the state chips in some massive money. But Government is not the total solution. YES, there are a lot of neighbors helping neighbors and that’s good and the way it should be. Please don’t let these crazy stories consume you or have you continually contact your elected officials to see if they are true … Thanks for listening but I’ve been working on this 12 hours a day since it started and I’m growing a bit weary of intentional distractions from the main job ... which is to help our citizens in need,”
That sentiment was backed up by Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who on ’ Face the Nation” said Corbin is correct. While Tillis said resources are moving slower than he’d hope and in recent days he’s called out the Biden administration for some mistakes he thinks have been made, he still took time to thank all local, state and federal responders.
“They’re going extraordinary work,” he said.
“FEMA knows how to do this well,” he added.
At a press conference last Friday, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, Republican Haywood County Sheriff Bill Wilke and Republican Haywood County Commission Chair Kevin Ensley flatly denied rumors and conspiracy theories circulating on social media alleging a lack of government response to the catastrophe left in the wake of Tropical Storm Helene.
“[They] are pulling together like people in Western North Carolina do,” Cooper said, adding that while this is an “unprecedented storm,” people are working together to provide an “unprecedented response.”
At the press conference, a reporter asked Criswell about a rumor that people had already been denied requests for aid.
Criswell said no one had been denied at that point, and that typically if those in need aren’t getting assistance “immediately,” more information is needed. She added that the problem is often that people have that necessary information on electronic devices that have been destroyed or are otherwise inaccessible. There are already teams in the field working to obtain that information.
Another rumor Criswell addressed is that funding for FEMA has been diverted to “other things,” as she put it, a nod to allegations that money going to providing essential services for migrants or aid in Ukraine has taken away from the response to Helene.
“I can tell you that is false. Completely false,” Criswell said.
“Our funding is here for them, and we’re not going to leave until everyone has everything they need for this recovery,” she added.
Wilke stepped up to the microphone and made a characteristically candid statement, almost becoming emotional at one point. He said he’s seen plenty of people working 18-hour days doing “muckouts” who are dedicated to the mission, dedicated to this community. While he said those spreading conspiracy theories are “of no concern” to him, he recommended Haywood County residents “turn that garbage off,” and he had a challenge for those spending time spreading that disinformation.
“Get off Facebook, and get out there and put on a pair of boots and pair of gloves and get to work,” he said.
Pless has made some rumbles in the state political circles with a response he offered to an email from North Carolinian who was claiming the government has done nothing in response to the catastrophic flooding. In his response, he recalled generally the stories he told SMN but added his own message.
Gov. Roy Cooper speaks to a small press gaggle. Cory Vaillancourt photo
“If a showman is what you like, Florida has open boarders [sic] and would gladly welcome you,” he said.
Pless told SMN that there were mistakes made — like during any disaster response — and he was looking forward to discussing what could have been done better, but he also made it clear that he thought actions taken by responders during the worst of the storm saved a tremendous amount of lives.
“The reason no one was saying anything about the storm right away was because these people were out serving the community, not posting on Facebook saying ‘pat me on the back,’” Pless said.
Richmond, the Haywood EMS PIO, made her opinion clear when it comes to the distraction of disinformation and how much tougher that makes her job.
“Disinformation and misinformation, whether intentional or unintentional, causes a lot of extra work for first responders, and it causes extra work in public information group because we have to track down rumors and clarify them for the public,” she said. “We have to produce an abundance of messaging, and we have other messaging that takes a lot of time,” she said. “Those who choose to comment from outside of our community aren’t on the ground and shouldn’t be speaking for us. If they haven’t verified information, they’re doing a disservice.”
SUPPORTING THE RESPONDERS
When Richmond took to the airwaves on WPTL, she not only conveyed information, but she also had some words for the responders she’d seen in the field. She reminded them to take care of themselves and that it’s alright to feel overburdened by the stress and exhaustion and even traumatic memories endured during the rescue and aid efforts.
“It’s OK to not be OK,” she said, her voice wavering as she thought about her own experiences.
It could be seen in the days following the flood as the smiles and energetic demeanors of first responders were increasingly belied by increasingly glassy, sad and distant eyes.
Donaldson has something he said can always draw strength from — time with his kids. He usually enjoys getting home in time to interact with them before they go to sleep. But sometimes, times like these, that’s not always that case, and that’s when admitted he might have some difficulty.
“What hurts me and when I really start having issues is when I leave before they get up, and I get home after they go to bed, and I don’t get to spend that time and see that the most important thing to me in my life,” he said. “I like to know that they’re OK and happy and that they understand that daddy’s OK.”
This presents an often-overlooked element of any situation like this — the wellbeing of the responders. It isn’t that people don’t care, it’s just often that responders are so busy putting in the hard work that they don’t even have time to process their own trauma, and they can feel selfish, even guilty, spending time thinking about their own wellbeing amid a disaster.
Over the last couple of weeks, Responder Support Services out of Asheville has had clinicians on the ground to treat those who have worked so hard and endured trauma of their own. Founder and owner Rick Baker said his mission is to supply first responders with whatever they may need, which could include stuff as simple as water, Tylenol or a dry pair of socks. However, it frequently means taking the time to talk.
He added that talking in detail about traumatic experiences while they’re fresh can mitigate the severity of resulting PTSD because it can allow the brain to process the trauma as intended before those pathways are shut down and the trauma is locked in. Given the fast-paced nature of this incident, these brief therapy sessions are known informally as “walk-and-talks,” during which a responder can get up with a clinician and take a walk around the block, even just a walk around the building — any chance to offer people opportunities to unburden themselves.
While Baker said the mission is important to him and his clinicians wherever they serve, this is one of the first times they’ve served their own community in the wake of a disaster of this magnitude.
National Guard soldiers and local volunteers work together to load supplies into a Haywood County ambulance. Kyle Perrotti photo
“For an incident like this, the pressure is much higher because these are the people we live with and the people we have close relationships with,” he said. “For me as the owner, I want to make sure everything we do is top-notch and seamless. These are the people we’ll see every day as we live out the rest of our lives.”
With that pressure in mind, Baker admitted that he worries about his clinicians’ wellbeing, since absorbing so much of other people’s trauma can stack up on a person, whether they experienced their trauma during the flood or not. Baker said that while he has clinicians who lost all their belongings, he’s still worried about each of them in one way or another.
“Absorbing that trauma puts us at twice the risk for developing post-traumatic reactions,” he said.
Prior to the storm’s arrival, understanding the high need that would arise in the community, Baker put out a call for more clinicians to come from outside areas to help serve the emergency workers. He said the response was overwhelming with clinicians from around the state offering to stay and help where help was needed. Among those who offered to help were Kim Turpin and her husband, Dr. Raymond Turpin, who own the Pearl Psychedelic Institute in Waynesville, through which a number of different types of therapy are offered.
Kim Turpin said Baker told her that the need may end up being greater right there in Haywood County, so she and her husband chose to stick around close to home. Indeed, they have found there’s plenty of work to be done. In fact, they’re offering free services to anyone — whether they’re a first responder or not — considering so many in the community are going through what seems like an impossibly difficult time.
Kim Turpin echoed a “critically important” sentiment shared by Baker.
“When people have these single-incident traumas, when you can get to them quick, before waiting for it to be something that’s suppressed, it can be less damaging to their mental health,” she said. “When something like this happens, other traumas can bubble to the surface, and there are also people with survivor’s guilt.”
(Anyone interested in setting up a therapy appointment with the Pearl Psychedelic Institute can do so by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or calling either 828.507.1421 or 828.400.7091. In addition, the National Disaster Relief phone number, which can connect people with someone else to talk to 24/7, is 1.800.985.5990.)
