Ohio Task Force 1 has relocated to Boone, North Carolina—about two hours from Asheville—after assisting in Florida.

What You Need To Know

  • Recovery efforts continue in multiple states after the devastation from Hurricane Helene

  • More than 200 people are dead in the aftermath

  • Ohio Task Force 1 still has boots on the ground helping assist first responders

  • The 82-person team is continuing rescue efforts moving from Florida to North Carolina to help those in the wake of the storm

Friday was day 11 of their operations. They started last Tuesday in Florida and have now moved to the town that sits in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. The 82-member team has helped three counties so far since being deployed, each for multiple days at a time and has evacuated dozens of residents. 

Jeffrey Newman, a task force leader for Ohio Task Force 1, said their team has fortunately not had to recover any bodies at this time but that many families they’re interacting with have lost their homes and really everything to their name. 

“Just like Florida, you know, this is everything that they had, their retirement and so, it's unfortunate, very unfortunate, but that's what we do on an everyday basis,” Newman said. “Most of us are firemen, paramedics, we provide the service in our home communities. So this is just a greater extension of what we do there.”

Newman said they’re working toward helping people get back to their normal life, although normal looks different after events like this. He said they’re working on evacuating residents who are trapped in their homes or whose homes won’t have power any time soon.

They’re making sure elderly people can get out safely. If they’re on oxygen, they’re making sure the residents can get connected to a power source.

He said some of the roads in the area are impassable but that the people they’re helping are resilient. What has surprised him most is that locals are asking Ohio Task Force 1 what the team needs. Even though many of the locals are going through the worst period of their lives right now, they’re still thinking of others. 

Here's some photos provided by Ohio Task Force 1 to Spectrum News 1.

 

“When you have people coming up asking if we need something, you know, instead of us, we're here to provide them that service and not them to us,” Newman said. “So, we're grateful for the people that we're meeting, you know, they, you know, this is the worst moment of their lives, you know, and if we can just sit there and lend an ear, you know, be that person just for the for them to be able to talk to. And that's what it takes, you know, that's a positive for us.”

Newman said Ohio Task Force 1 plans to help with recovery efforts until their assistance is no longer needed with FEMA. 

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