Over half-a-million pounds of supplies have been delivered to western North Carolina by volunteers flying private helicopters after Hurricane Helene, local reports have said.
Adam Smith drove 18 hours from Texas when he could not get through to his daughter and her mother stuck in North Carolina, he told WRAL. He eventually had to ride the rest of the way to the community of Swannanoa, just east of Asheville, in a private helicopter.
After being reunited with his family, Smith organized Savage Operations Center, which now has 150 volunteers and dozens of choppers delivering much-needed aid to people trapped in the Appalachian mountains.
“Already 500,000 pounds of supplies have been delivered,” the outlet reported.
“The people of Swannanoa, Bat Cave and Chimney Rock are going to be here, and they’ll still be rebuilding their lives and trying to rebuild their homes and trying to figure out what’s next,” Smith said.
“There’s homes that are washed out, people have lost their lives,” he continued. “There’s a lot of people left with nothing, there’s a lot of displaced people. the big challenge now, moving forward, it’s not so much the rescue, it’s how do we find a place for the displaced families?”
A video shared by Smith on Instagram showed some of the operations taking place on the ground:
Savage Operations Center was also joined by Blaze Media CEO Glenn Beck and Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) on Friday:
A GoFundMe page created on Smith’s behalf has raised nearly $180,000 to support his group’s important work.
Other private helicopter pilots on the scene of Helene’s devastation include former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle, who has been flying his aircraft with Operation Airdrop, Breitbart News reported.
In one video posted to social media on Thursday, the former NASCAR Busch series champion showed how he was able to help someone after seeing them flash a mirror from “well over a mile away”: