Dozens of volunteers from Massachusetts are assisting in hard-hit North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene's drenching rains caused widespread destruction.
The powerful storm took at least 89 lives across several states, including 30 people in just one North Carolina county.
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“There’s a lot of need, there is a lot of long-term recovery that’s going to happen,” said Kelly Isenor, of the Red Cross of Massachusetts.
“Every one of us doesn’t want to have the call in the sense that we don’t want anybody to be in harm’s way, but when someone is in harm’s way, every one of us wants to be the first one to get the call,” Tom Gatzunis, of Massachusetts Task Force 1, explained.
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Sixty-seven members of Mass. Task Force 1 got that call to North Carolina, where they're conducting search and rescues in the state with the highest rainfall total -- 29 inches.
“We’ve been termed a lot of times as the Swiss Army knife of FEMA,” Gatzunis said. "Even to get on the team its hundreds of hours of training that is required.”
Meanwhile, more than a dozen Red Cross volunteers from Massachusetts are providing food, shelter and medical supplies.
“It’s really hard to see – I’m a mom – so when I see tiny little children sleeping in a shelter... but I also I have to say I see the Red Crossers who are there bringing them toys and crayons,” Isenor said.
At one point, more than 1,000 people spent the night in Red Cross shelters in Florida.
“What gets everybody through this is the fact that people are willing to just drop what they’re doing in their own lives, come on down to Florida and just spend two weeks helping the Red Cross help those families,” Isenor said.
There is always more room for Red Cross volunteers, according to Isenor.
Mass. Task Force 1 will stay down south as long as it takes to ensure everyone is safe.
