YANCEY COUNTY, N.C. — In hard-hit Yancey County, hundreds of first responders from the local, state and federal levels have been deployed to help with Hurricane Helene recovery. Many have put their lives on hold, and they have a new home away from home deep in the North Carolina mountains.
Chief Tracy Winecoff is working on the incident management team, and he says important resources have now been brought in for the responders.
In a field in Burnsville, you’ll see rows and rows of white trailers providing a place to sleep, eat and shower for 500 first responders. There are about 500 crewmembers between all of the agencies who will spend the night there.
Inside the main tent, crews can eat hot meals and receive mental health resources.
“We’ve had chaplains on site, mental health professionals on site each morning as we’ve sat here and kind of debriefed and had breakfast,” Winecoff told Channel 9′s Hannah Goetz.
Winecoff said a main part of his job is to make sure the people taking care of you are taken care of themselves.
“These guys are working 12, 16, 18, 20-hour days coming in at midnight, sleeping and getting back up at 4, 4:30, 5 [a.m.] So to be able to sustain that, you have got to be able to take care of them,” Winecoff said.
The destructive scenes we’ve seen a few days out of the week, and what you may see for a few minutes out of your day, is what these responders see all day for weeks on end.
“These teams have been out here, you know, for three-plus weeks, and they’re spent physically and emotionally,” Winecoff said. “But they understand, I think that corresponds with how the community is feeling.”
Another aspect of Winecoff’s job in Yancey County is to make sure local emergency services can continue this work.
Rory Ledford will be in charge of sustaining that work.
“We have a mission board and ‘needs and assistance notes’ in here so people can get the news of who needs help, who gets checked on,” Ledford told Goetz.
Ledford is just 24 years old and he has been named operations section chief for Yancey County.
“At 24 years old, did you ever think you’d be overseeing a natural disaster in your area?” Goetz asked.
“Couldn’t dream of it,” Ledford said.
Just three weeks ago, he was a volunteer firefighter down the road. Now he will make sure the resources he’s showing us will be put to use.
Since Hurricane Helene, he says a lot has changed in the area, including him.
“I could spend years in class and not learn the things I have learned in the past three days,” Ledford said.
“You’re going to be keeping this area safe?” Goetz asked.
“That’s our main goal, keep everybody safe, keep people fed, warm, and make sure basic needs are covered while we are operating the cleanups and getting this county back to what it was,” Ledford said.
(VIDEO: Community hit hard by Helene leans on faith to salvage what’s left)
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