NORTH CAROLINA—Starting Sept. 27, Hurricane Helene’s impact across the western areas of North Carolina was felt. The storm brought very high winds and a significant amount of rain to the area—over 20 inches in just one week. Helene caused catastrophic damage to many towns and communities in its path, resulting in thousands of destroyed buildings and houses as well as many lives lost.  

As soon as it was safe to do so, efforts commenced to verify the safety of all affected Law Enforcement & Investigations and Forest Service personnel across the state. In some cases, law enforcement officers traveled to the residences of employees to check on them in person. After a couple days, all LEI and Forest Service personnel were identified as safe and accounted for.

Early on, LEI received requests for assistance from various sheriff’s offices and emergency management agencies across the state. Throughout, LEOs worked tirelessly with the various agencies and assisted with dozens of search and rescue operations.

The catastrophic damage from Helene over the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests was widespread. However, out of the two, the Pisgah was the most heavily damaged and needed additional resources to continue ongoing the lifesaving efforts. LEOs and agents soon arrived from other regions to assist personnel already on site.  

The Region 8 Incident Command trailer was deployed to the Pisgah National Forest, establishing a base of operation there. LEI personnel assisted with not only the search and rescue operations, but also in a wide variety of functions ranging from assisting FEMA efforts in the area, performing hundreds of welfare checks and humanitarian missions to directing traffic, rescuing animals and assisting victims with cleaning out their residences.

Once the search and rescue portion of the disaster started slowing down, LEOs assisted teams with cadaver K-9s attempting to find deceased victims in debris piles and mud slides. These missions are still ongoing.  

All throughout, LEOs have gone over and above what is required of them, providing victims with compassion and reassurance, food, water and on occasion, coordinated with local medical personnel to obtain vital medicine that was lost in the flood.

At this time, LEOs have been released from working closely with the emergency management teams and have begun patrolling those forest and district that received heavy damage from the storm. The primary focus of these patrols is to enforce a forest-wide closure as assessments and repairs take place.