Three Asheville Fire Department members have returned after assisting North Carolina Emergency Management during Hurricane Erin.
Senior Firefighter Anthony Evans and Captain Isaac McCurry were part of the Field Communications Team. They were deployed as one of three Communications Strike Teams at the Regional Coordination Center-East in Kinston. These teams are certified communication technicians who work from a central emergency location, with tasks that include restoring damaged infrastructure, addressing responder communication needs, attending briefings, helping with communications planning, and pre-positioning equipment in areas prone to issues.
“We arrived Tuesday evening and completed the initial check-in process. Wednesday, we began the process of ensuring our communication resources we had brought, as well as the state communications resources, were mission-ready for the field,” McCurry said. “In the afternoon, we were assigned to Carteret County to provide and set up equipment to ensure their most flood-prone areas could sustain communications during and after the storm.”
The storm did not impact critical commercial or public safety infrastructure. The teams were released from RCC-E on Friday and returned to Asheville.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to serve in this capacity to help others, as so many came to help us in our time of need,” McCurry said.
Battalion Chief Trey Young was also deployed with the North Carolina Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team (NCHART). He described his role: “I was one member of a 7-person flight crew, four aviators from the North Carolina National Guard, myself, and 2 Charlotte firefighters. Our assigned aircraft was a UH-60L (Blackhawk) helicopter. We deployed from our base (Army Aviation Support Facility #2) in Salisbury to forward stage at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock. Our assigned Area of Responsibility was the entire coast with a specific focus on the Outer Banks; from Manteo, south to Ocracoke Island.”
NCHART crews helped North Carolina Emergency Management by conducting survey flights over the Outer Banks for damage assessments and identifying landing zones for different aircraft types. They also worked with stakeholders by providing just-in-time training for Marine Corps aircraft rescue & firefighting crews and air traffic controllers.
