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ROCHESTER, New York --Forty-seven New York Army National Guard Soldiers and Airmen deployed to North Carolina between Sept. 29 and October 18 after Hurricane Helene devastated the state’s mountainous western region.
The New York National Guard deployed Army engineers and aviators and Air Force casualty recovery specialists to assist the North Carolina National Guard’s hurricane recovery efforts.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul directed the deployment after an Emergency Management Assistant Compact request from states hit by Hurricane Helene. The compact allows states to share people and resources, including from the National Guard, during disasters.
Sixteen Soldiers from Company B of the 3rd Battalion, 126th General Support Aviation Battalion, were the first to head south.
The Soldiers flew three CH-47F Chinook heavy lift helicopters from Rochester to Greenville, South Carolina on September 29. From the Army Aviation Support Facility in Greenville, they conducted missions into the region hit by the storm.
Between Sept. 29 and October 9, when they returned to Rochester, the aviators transported 99 tons of supplies, ranging from bottled water to hay for cattle. They also transported 32 rescue and recovery personnel.
“It was mostly just resupply of food and water and other critical personal needs, like dog food, paper products, generators, and fuel,” said Capt. Jeff Tampe, the Company B commander. “A lot of those folks without power were basically camping out.”
North Carolina National Guard liaison teams would provide the taskings to his Soldiers and they were usually flying six missions daily to meet the demands, he said.
The CH-47s would normally land at high school athletic fields and recreation centers, but the aviators could land someplace else if the potential landing zone looked unsafe, he said.
There was an “abundance of debris” on the ground and that could be hazardous, Tampe explained.
He was impressed by how quickly his unit responded and how dedicated the men and women were to the mission, Tampe said.
“They were living and breathing the mission for 20 hours a day,” he said. “We would get done flying and we would sleep right by the aircraft. They were true professionals.”
The New York Air National Guard’s 107th Attack Wing, based at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, sent 11 members of its 107th Fatality Search and Recovery Team to North Carolina on October 1.
The team’s members are trained to locate the remains of people killed in a disaster and recover and transport the decedents.
The Airmen deployed with four F-350 pickup trucks, two refrigerator trailers to hold remains, and three all-terrain vehicles for search and recovery missions, said Capt. Shawn Lavin, the team commander.
They returned after two weeks to New York on October 15.
The Airmen operated out of Burnsville and supported the Yancy County medical examiner, Lavin said.
The Airmen worked with an emergency response team from Kansas to search the mountain towns for suspected fatalities. These missions took 12 to 14 hours a day.
The unexpected mission they encountered was recovering remains from cemeteries, Lavin said.
The rain and steep slopes wound up resulting in mudslides which washed coffins and some remains out of family cemeteries, Lavin explained. In one case they had to deal with a tomb that had been partially washed out of the ground.
The major lesson learned, Lavin said, was that his team needed a better way to communicate when the power grid is down. The mountains interfered with the FM radio’s line of site, and the cell network was down.
It would be logical to invest in satellite phones to deal with those challenges, he said.
Twenty Soldiers from the 827th Engineer Company of the 204th Engineer Battalion, took the most indirect route to North Carolina’s disaster zone, according to 1st Lt. Jason Boring, the platoon leader who led the mission.
His team was originally tasked to support the South Carolina National Guard with 17 pieces of major engineer equipment, which included backhoes, 5-yard loaders, skid steers, and dump trucks. They also brought along chainsaws for debris clearance.
The main body departed Horseheads and Walton on October 2 in rental vans with the equipment following on commercial flatbeds, Boring said.
After they arrived in Greenwood, South Carolina, they were assigned a route reconnaissance mission. State officials needed to know what roads were clear and which were obstructed, Boring said.
The Soldiers used an emergency management application on their phones to record and transmit this data for 70 miles of road they surveyed, he said.
But North Carolina needed their engineering equipment more than South Carolina, so they were re-tasked to help that state.
On October 7 the team moved to Morganton, North Carolina and then were tasked to conduct missions in the vicinity of nearby Old Fort.
In Old Fort the engineers worked to clear obstructions from four culverts and six bridges along two miles of a town road. They also cleared 7,809 square yards of debris and cut up and removed 150 downed trees, Boring said.
The Soldiers were frustrated that they couldn’t do more, Boring said. But the repeated movements kept them from working projects, he said.
“To the Soldiers credit, they just wanted to do work and make a difference,” he said.
The 204th Soldiers began moving back to New York on October 17 and the trail party returned home October 19, Boring said.
“I know it sounds cheesy,” he said,” but I was really impressed with our Soldiers. They didn’t get on the mission because they wanted a paycheck. They wanted to be on the mission because they wanted to work and help.”
| Date Taken: | 10.28.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.28.2024 10:00 |
| Story ID: | 484032 |
| Location: | NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | HORSEHEADS, NEW YORK, US |
| Hometown: | NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK, US |
| Hometown: | ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, US |
| Hometown: | WALTON, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 150 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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