ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Urban search and rescue task forces from the D.C. region, supported by National Guard helicopters from Maryland, have rescued dozens in North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, according to mission organizers.
“We've been primarily conducting water searches, searching rivers and river banks and utilizing our canines," said Maryland Task Force 1 scene commander Josh Kerwin from the team's current assignment in Haywood County, North Carolina in a post to X, formerly known as Twitter.
Montgomery County Fire Chief Corey Smedley said a number of victims trapped in areas cut off because of destroyed roads and bridges have been saved.
“We have deployed the Maryland HART team, which is the Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team, and they're actually working in the helicopter, pulling people out of water. We've already rescued a couple of dozen people," Smedley reported in another X post.
Photographs and videos supplied by the Maryland and Virginia teams show rescuers searching destroyed homes, vehicles and piles of debris for any survivors or the remains of missing flood victims.
Local responders are now at work in the flood zone and were deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the days before Hurricane Helene spread devastation in the southeast.
The Virginia team responded first in Florida. The Maryland Team worked in Georgia, before being redeployed to North Carolina.
Overall FEMA teams are claiming 2,100 rescues. The D.C.-region teams are among at least 19 of the nation's FEMA Urban Search and Rescue teams that have been deployed so far from states including Utah, Wisconsin, New York, and Texas.
The FEMA teams are assigned to work with local rescuers. About 6,700 National Guard soldiers from 16 states have been activated to provide assistance, according to the Department of Defense.
As of Thursday evening, at least 215 people are known to have died as a result of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene since it made landfall in Florida a week ago. More than half of the deaths were in North Carolina.
PHOTOS: Maryland and Virginia rescuers remain busy in North Carolina amid Hurricane Helene aftermath
After a visit to the flood zone Wednesday, President Joe Biden ordered 100% cost sharing to backfill what the state of North Carolina is spending, as well as an additional $20 million diverted immediately for direct cash payments to flood victims who can apply online.
FEMA was recharged with $80 billion on Oct. 1 thanks to the stopgap funding approved by congress to avoid a government shutdown. The agency reported it has deployed 4,500 personnel from across the federal workforce, and shipped more than 7.1 million meals, 6.5 million liters of water and 200,000 tarps to the region.
Some of it is being delivered by Maryland National Guard Helicopters.
Yet social media now has millions of views on false claim that FEMA is “out of money and nowhere to be seen” along with video posts of Biden that have been taken out of context.
According to a report from Reuters news agency, only one in 20 of the damaged and destroyed homes in the region have federally backed flood insurance, because FEMA storm mapping did not include many of the impacted valleys.
There are estimates more than $150 billion in Federal Aid will be needed before its over.
Two North Carolina Congressmen on Thursday called on Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Leader Chuck Schumer to call congress back from its recess to get the funding moving without delaying until after the election.