AccuWeather's Bill Wadell is in Swannanoa, North Carolina, where many communities in the surrounding area unite together in their recovery and relief efforts after Helene's disastrous flooding.
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00:00We've got clear blue skies good flying conditions for these pilots the helicopters that you saw here behind us earlier this morning stuck in the
00:06Fog they were able to take off and get more emergency supplies out
00:10And it may get noisy here because we are expecting more helicopters shortly to land in this field and you could see their priority today
00:15Is getting this food this bottled water and especially critical medicine including insulin and heart medication
00:22To people who lost nearly everything in this storm
00:25And they are still stuck up in some of these remote communities in the mountains a lot of these families
00:30They were prepared for the storm. They are used to dealing with rough weather and the need to be self-reliant
00:35But again, some of these families lost nearly everything their stockpile of supplies
00:39Some of them lost their homes their cars cell phone signal is still out and many roads have been washed away
00:45Now this operation it all started with people who were frantic to get in touch with loved ones
00:50They weren't sure if they made it through the storm and they used social media to connect with
00:55Helicopter pilots with private helicopter owners to get this mission started. They say they couldn't wait
01:00They couldn't sit at home or in their cars. They had to do something now. This rapid response has grown quickly
01:06It started Friday and over the weekend with just a few people a few helicopters and pilots
01:11But now in the past 24 hours, we had 28 different helicopters land at this makeshift base camp
01:17It's right next to a business that was washed out. They lost everything
01:21Adam Smith helped organize this operation and now they're they have more relief groups more pilots and more helicopters on the way all
01:28Volunteer and they still need more help
01:32They're just absolute champions and they are just amazing human beings with huge hearts and not once has anybody said hey
01:39How do we get reimbursed or how can we get paid or how can we not one time?
01:43Has anybody ever brought that up? It's just it's just it's just really phenomenal. This is not a fast recovery
01:48This is not a three-day rescue effort and then everybody can go to bed and wake up the next morning
01:52We have hundreds and hundreds of displaced people. We have we have thousands of people still
01:58I think tens of thousands of people still without power and still without active running water because the reservoirs were damaged
02:04So so so badly we can't let people forget about this
02:11These volunteers flew in
02:1340,000 pounds of emergency supplies in just the past 24 hours
02:18Including insulin and that critical medicine. They also helped one woman with a heart condition get off the mountain yesterday afternoon
02:24We know that they've also been flying more people out of these hardest-hit areas
02:27They are asking for donations to help pay for fuel to keep this operation going as long as possible
02:33I posted the link to their GoFundMe account on my ex page or also known as my Twitter account now more groups
02:40Organized volunteers. They are showing up to help at this facility today and
02:44Bernie and Ari these folks are saying please be careful where you donate. We're seeing a lot of new things pop up online
02:51There's a lot of good happening a lot of volunteers here on the ground from different organizations
02:56Tragically during these major disasters we have seen scams in the past. We know that that's happening
03:01We're being told by some of these folks that they are also encountering these
03:06Misleading accounts, they're taking pictures. They make it sound like they're legit. And unfortunately, that's the kind of thing that happens
03:12So I can tell you I have verified with this group. They showed me their account their link. This is the real deal here
03:18because there's a lot of links flying around so they're gonna try and keep this going as much as possible and
03:23Bernie and Ari they appreciated the update that flying weather is going to be good today
03:28Obviously we deal with fog in the mornings here in the mountains
03:31But for the next few days things are looking good for the rescue recovery operations
03:35They say this is going to take quite a while. And again, they're big concern with another storm brewing down in the tropics
03:41They're not worried about weather impacts. We know we're not expecting those here. They're concerned about the attention
03:47Lose attention. They're gonna lose donations. We often see that within a week or two after these disasters
03:51So they're asking people please help today if you can they're trying to get as much of this as possible even behind me
03:57They want to get this up to the mountains as fast as they can
03:59Yeah, Bill I shared your link shared it again, it's on my Facebook and Bill's a very trustworthy person
04:05So I know if he's posting something it's something I feel confident about sharing and posting
04:08So anyone who can make a donation today and make a difference for those folks who are stranded in Western, North Carolina
04:13That would be much appreciated