MITCHELL COUNTY, NC. — Oklahoma's Task Force One, of the Tulsa Fire Department, is on a mission to help find and rescue victims of Hurricane Helene's devastating flooding along the Toe River.
"We've been working down the I-97 corridor," said the team's Matt Bell. "Searching miles and miles of this river for reports of people that are confirmed missing."
The team faces challenges like roads and communities being wiped off the map by the sheer force of flood waters.
Another challenge is that they have no cell phone service to connect with their base camp and no Wi-Fi to run mapping programs on their phones.
Despite the challenges, people in Mitchell County, North Carolina, are going out of their way to help those who came to help them.
Bell said, "These guys literally built us a homemade road on the side of the river to get us into the next community. These people here are coming together. They're all working together. They're showing us what it's like to be true Americans."
- GALLERY >>> Pics from the task force's recovery efforts
Because of the severely curtailed wifi and cell service, communications with the team are limited, so 2 News was not able to speak with them directly. However, Tulsa's Fire Department's Andy Little agreed to relay some questions for us including:
- What do you take away from covering something of this magnitude?
"I think what we're going to take away from this incident is the magnitude of this situation. It's the destruction in the infrastructure and the roads and the power of water and what it's done to these communities. We're gonna take away the power of water, and Mother Nature is extremely strong. What we're seeing here, these communities are wiped out."
- How does this destruction compare to the destruction they see here with tornadoes?
"I'd say it's similar to probably an F5 tornado. If you add on the water, it has added to the damage of what an F5 tornado would do. The water has removed 20 to 40 feet of earth and anything that was on it or in its path is completely gone."
- Did they learn anything from the flooding in Oklahoma in 2019 that helped them now?
"Yeah, absolutely! I think a lot of these flood events have a lot of things in common. I think the thing that's different with this one is the velocity of water. So there was a tremendous amount of water coming down the mountain in the North Toe and South Toe, and they combined. Then you add on top 33 inches of rain, the velocity of water coming out of the mountain in the gradients and the hills — you had a tremendous amount of energy and force coming through these communities. So it's not backed up water, not static flood water. What you're seeing is very swift, very dynamic water situations that have just completely removed everything in the path."
Here's the full interview:
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- SUBSCRIBE on YouTube
