Local Volunteers Step Up For Hurricane Helene Victims
By Michael Standaert
North Dakota
News Cooperative
Several North Dakota pilots, truckers and other businesses voluntarily ferried relief supplies to areas devastated by Hurricane Helene in the past few weeks.
The hurricane tore a wide swath of death and destruction across several southeastern states in late September. It will take months and likely years to rebuild infrastructure, homes and normal lives again.
With over 230 deaths confirmed across six states and nearly 100 still missing in North Carolina alone, the death toll will keep rising.
For one volunteer pilot, the number of small planes in the sky from all across the country was reminiscent of a mini, airborne “Dunkirk” operation -- the famous evacuation of Allied troops from France to the U.K., aided by hundreds of small boats and vessels during WWII.
“The only way to access some of these communities was by small plane,” said Casey Veil, a North Dakota pilot who flew supplies to impacted areas. “So, it was really neat to see the number of small planes doing the same thing.”
Airborne volunteers
Veil and his good friend Treven Iverson of Jamestown flew supplies down on Oct. 4, initially to Mountain City, TN, and were then routed by volunteers through Burlington, NC, to shuttle supplies there.
“I saw a Facebook post of somebody else doing this, and I thought, man, is it really that easy? I can go load up the plane and head down there and potentially help somebody,” Veil said.
So that’s what he and Iverson did, buying supplies themselves at the local Walmart after checking with an organization called Convoy of Hope to see what was needed.
“It was a humbling experience,” said Veil. “It was just tragic to see what these people are going through. Their houses and livelihoods are gone.”
James Owen, a pilot from Gackle, also came across calls to action on Facebook and connected with the operator of a flight school in North Carolina coordinating efforts to fly supplies into the mountainous western parts of the state. At the time, many roads in those areas were impassable and communities remained isolated.
Owen also initially flew into Mountain City and later flew six supply flights into affected areas out of a hub established in Burlington by Brian Fredrickson, owner of the flight school Fredrickson Aviation.
He came across Fredrickson’s group on Oct. 2, then notified the pastor at his church, Temple Baptist in Jamestown, about his intentions to fly down with relief supplies. That set off a chain reaction of goodwill donations flooding into the church. In the ensuing hours, Owen gathered the supplies and quickly began his flight to the area.
“The reason I wanted to help is because I felt. . .
The North Dakota News Cooperative is a non-profit news organization providing reliable and independent reporting on issues and events that impact the lives of North Dakotans. The organization increases the public’s access to quality journalism and advances news literacy across the state. For more information about NDNC or to make a charitable contribution, please visit newscoopnd.org.