On the Ground With Fort Liberty’s Storm Relief Teams

This story is published in partnership with The Assembly.

“You’re gonna need these,” says a soldier as she tosses a pair of hand warmers to anyone ready to catch them.

It’s about 8 a.m. on Thursday, two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina. The steam from everyone’s coffee cups is visible. So is their breath. 

“I was hoping the weather would hold out a bit longer,” says Sgt. Alison Strout, a public affairs specialist with the XVIII Airborne Corps, as beanie-donned soldiers hunch their shoulders in the cold.

About 1,500 soldiers from Fort Liberty’s 82nd Airborne Division and the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Campbell’s 101st Airborne Division were crawling out of their small, camouflage tents to temperatures in the mid-40s. Together, they make up an Infantry Battalion Task Force for Hurricane Helene relief sent to western North Carolina after the storm.

Their base of operations has been the grounds behind Camping World’s RV dealership near Marion, and under a massive pavilion emblazoned with the store’s name in bold white letters, soldiers are operating an information center, handing out MREs and other food provided by the United Services Organization, and preparing to head into storm-struck communities in the 38 counties under major disaster declaration.

Convoys of military vehicles and earthmoving equipment kick up dust as they leave the camp for their daily missions. The slow-moving convoys’ destinations range from Boone to Asheville to Bat Cave to Cherokee. Their mission tasks are just as broad. Wellness checks. Traffic and road closure management. Clearing debris and earth from landslides. Sorting and distributing relief supplies. 

Robert Arndt, an engineer specialist in the XVIII Airborne Corps, knows personally how much it matters.

Arndt is from Sylva, a western North Carolina town of a little over 2,500. From Fort Liberty, he witnessed Hurricane Helene’s destruction in the region he calls home. He lost contact with his parents until power was restored to the town almost a week later. The hurricane destroyed his grandmother’s home in Clyde, just west of Asheville. 

“I was down to come down here whether I was volunteered or voluntold,” said Arndt. “I wanted to come down here and help the best way I could.”

The soldiers’ arrival also takes some pressure off local volunteers who have been working nonstop for nearly two weeks.

“We worked until we were weary,” said Dale Levins, a substitute third-grade teacher at Mitchell Elementary in Bakersville, which has been turned into a donation distribution hub.

Just before the storm, the elementary and middle school complex had been the county’s first new school in 22 years. But students were there less than a month before Helene. Now they don’t expect to go back to classes until early November. 

For Corporal Keysha Garcia, sorting boxes of food for families waiting in line at Mitchell Elementary/Mitchell Middle is similar to what her family did during Hurricane Maria in her native Puerto Rico. Garcia’s family used their gas stove to cook for their community in the weeks after that devastating storm.

Garcia also brings another resource: speaking Spanish. She has been helping families access information and needed supplies.

“They struggle to say what they need,” said Garcia. “I talk more to them, like, ‘How are you doing? Have you been able to communicate with other people? If you need anything, just let me know.’”

Now over two weeks out from Helene’s landfall, the soldiers are helping western counties find a new normal in the ongoing recovery. They’ve been taking bottled water, canned goods, and other relief supplies from the school complex’s packed gymnasium and cafeteria to distribution centers in the south and north ends of the county. 

“It’s nice to know that we have the vehicles and the manpower to move those things out so we can start getting our buildings ready for students to come back in eventually,” said Michelle Lord, a special education teacher for Mitchell Elementary who has been helping the effort.

With the soldiers doing the heavy lifting, Lord and other teacher volunteers have more time to put together learning materials to send home for students.

At Harris Middle and Deyton Elementary schools in Spruce Pine, soldiers stream in and out of classrooms labeled for the donations they contain, carrying boxes filled with sleeping bags, sanitary pads, and oral hygiene products. The schools have stood relatively empty since the new complex opened, providing perfect staging areas for relief distribution. A new emergency shelter for the displaced is also under construction between the former schools, a welcome sight for Mitchell High School chemistry teacher Jennifer Lynch whose school currently serves as the emergency shelter. 

“I’m anxious for my students to get back to school,” said Lynch. “I’m anxious for them and for us to have our stability back.”

Lynch was one of many helping direct soldiers to where they’re needed. “We really couldn’t have done it without their help, to be perfectly honest,” she said.

Lynch said their presence, along with the National Guard and the Virginia Task Force 2 Urban Search and Rescue Team, has helped ease tensions in Mitchell County about scarce resources.

“Having the military here, we just have a sense of safety,” said Levins.

In the immediate aftermath of the storm, Levins described disorder as gas pumps were brought back online in Bakersville and Spruce Pine. Traffic stretched down the road and blocked emergency service vehicles. People fought over how much gas they could take. That is, until the military arrived.

“Here they came and they parked vehicles at these gas stations and started working and regulating and keeping order with people,” said Levins.

Specialist Lorna Nieves-Sevillano has been working behind the scenes to determine where to send soldiers. For her, the work is personal. As a Puerto Rican living in Florida, she’s experienced hurricanes both as a survivor and as someone trying to contact loved ones during a storm. 

“I never thought being a part of the Army that I’d be aiding hurricane relief,” said Nieves-Servillano. “It’s like fulfilling my life’s purpose.”

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the 101st Airborne Division was located at Fort Liberty. The 101st Airborne Division is based at Fort Campbell. This article has been updated with the correct information. CityView apologizes for this error.

CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the CityView News Fund.