The loading zone behind Burlington’s police headquarters was a hive of activity on Monday as members of the city’s police force prepared to set off for the storm-battered highlands of western North Carolina.
A total of nine officers ultimately joined this expedition, which was dispatched to Asheville alongside a six-person team from Graham’s police department to assist with the recovery from Hurricane Helene.
The detachment from Burlington was still making its final preparations for the trip when the officers from Graham reached Burlington’s police headquarters shortly before 11:00 a.m. So, it was with all deliberate speed that Burlington’s finest filled their requisitioned vehicles with everything from emergency radios to camping supplies for their forthcoming upland excursion.
This accumulation of gear was no case of overkill, according Morgan Lasater, Burlington’s public engagement director, who was on hand to give her city’s police officers a send off that morning.
“They’ll be sleeping on the ground,” Lasater explained as a couple of sleeping bags were plunked into the back of one vehicle.
The 15 police officers who embarked on this trip were preceded in their departure by crews from a number of other local agencies.
On Friday afternoon, the office of Alamance County’s sheriff sent four deputies as well as the agency’s armored Bearcat in response to a request for assistance from Yancey County’s sheriff Shane Hilliard. Meanwhile, Alamance County’s fire marshal John Payne acknowledged that similar calls have brought help from fire departments all over Alamance County.
“We do have seven fire departments in the county that have sent personnel and apparatus,” Payne said in an interview Monday. “I know that Burlington’s fire department just sent their second team up there today.”
Lasater told The Alamance News the first four firefighters that Burlington deployed were assigned to McDowell County, although the second team has been directed to Asheville. She added that, Kevin Turner, the city’s emergency management director, is also in Asheville to help coordinate the overall disaster response, while Burlington’s animal services division has sent both employees and supplies to assist its counterpart in Buncombe County.
“There is a need for water, blankets, and food crates at their animal shelters,” Lasater added. “Two of their folks are already up there, and another team will be going tomorrow…We’re also taking some adoptable pets from Asheville to be brought in this week through the Bissell Foundation.”
Other agencies that have pitched in with the recovery effort include Elon’s fire department, which has sent one of its engine companies to assist in Hendersonville. Meanwhile, Graham’s fire department has dispatched a fire engine and four firefighters, according to the city’s fire chief Tommy Cole.
“They are currently covering an area in Buncombe County,” Cole explained in response to an inquiry from The Alamance News.
Payne said that fire trucks and personnel have sallied forth from the fire departments in the Haw River, Snow Camp, and E.M. Holt rural fire districts, while Christopher Saul, the county’s emergency management director, has also donned his waders to help with the recovery effort in Asheville.
Meanwhile, Mebane is apparently still waiting to hear what it can do to assist with the post-storm response.
“At this point,” interim city manager Preston Mitchell explained, “we have discussed it over the weekend but we are waiting to receive more details from the State/Local governments of specific needs and time frames of when and what relief assistance communities in WNC need.”
In any case, the money to pay these local “volunteers” will apparently come from sources other than local tax dollars. According to Lasater, Burlington expects to receive reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
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The duties of these local detachments seem to vary considerably once they arrive on the scene in the state’s storm-ravaged areas.
Payne said that one fire crew from this area has been put on road clearing detail, although other local firefighters are merely subbing in for their counterparts in the western part of the state.
“They are taking shifts at different fire departments,” he added, “so the people up there can go home to check on their families and their property.”
Tony Velez with Graham’s police department said his agency’s six officers will provide law enforcement support to the city of Asheville, which has seen an uptick in crimes such as looting in the wake of the hurricane.
In the meantime, members of Burlington’s police force have apparently been tasked with ferrying in some supplies, such as nonperishable food products and diapers that were waiting to be loaded as the relief caravan prepared to depart the city’s police headquarters on Monday.
