First Responder Friday: Rutherford County airport

RUTHERFORDTON, NC (WSPA) – The Rutherford County Airport isn't too busy on most days. It averages around 40 takeoffs and landings per day.

But Helene, like it did across western North Carolina, changed things.

Two days after the storm passed, Kim Freeman got a call.

"(I was told) there are planes that want to fly into Rutherford County Airport and there's nobody there to unload them," the Executive Director of Rutherford County Habitat for Humanity said.

"I said 'We got to think about this, not Habitat's thing.' So, I laid back down and about ten minutes later, I thought, we need to do this."

Freeman became fast friends with Devon Raisch, the Rutherford County Airport Director of Operations. They saw a 300% increase in traffic in the days and weeks after Helene.

"Everybody in aviation from local to Ohio and Florida to out in Arkansas," Raisch said. "We are flying into this area, not just our airport, but many other airports."

Singing star Lainey Wilson was among the hundreds of people who flew into Rutherford County. "We got the opportunity to meet her," Freeman told 7NEWS. "She had a plane fly in with insulin, heaters, things that were really needed."

All kinds of people volunteered to come to the airport to unload the planes. Some were people who lived in Habitat for Humanity homes. "Everybody just pitched in to help," according to Freeman. "It didn't matter if you were a millionaire or worked at Walmart."

Something else happened after those planes touched down and the cargo was unloaded.

"All of a sudden, all the volunteers start cheering," Freeman recalled. "So, every time a pilot came in, we unloaded them and cheered until he took off."

All those volunteers moved hundreds of thousands of pounds of supplies to a donated warehouse in Forest City so they could be distributed to people in need.

"You hear so much bad and this was traumatic. It was devastating for so many people, but you actually got to see the good (in people) that you never hear about anymore."