'I feel lucky to be a part of it': Oklahomans aid hurricane-affected states in recovery
Oklahomans are familiar with unspeakable damage caused by natural disasters as tornados wreak havoc over the Sooner State year after year. So when catastrophes strike other states, Okies are quick to lend a hand.
After Hurricane Helene hit the southeastern U.S. in late September, and the massive Hurricane Milton followed in quick succession, 10 teams from Oklahoma were requested to North Carolina and Florida through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a state-to-state mutual aid system.
The deployment cost the state about $4.2 million for the missions, but those states will reimburse Oklahoma, said Keli Cain, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management's public affairs director.
Nearly 130 Oklahomans were deployed to Florida and North Carolina to assist with relief, including Brad Smith, an Oklahoma City battalion chief and Urban Search and Rescue Team leader.
Smith led a team of 16 people on the 14-day mission that ended late last week. The team did damage assessments, primary searches of destroyed houses and even made a live rescue before entering North Carolina.
Typically, the team arrives at an area affected by a natural disaster after live rescues have been made, but with water blocking roadways and flooding bridges, the team spent two days in Tennessee outside of North Carolina. That's where the team was flagged down by civilians who needed help rescuing four people.
"We showed up right on time and were able to rescue four people who, in my opinion, certainly would have perished had we not been there at that exact time," Smith said. "For what we do, it's the pinnacle. It's why all the time we train."
Smith has been with the Urban Search and Rescue Team for 20 years where he's been deployed to natural disasters outside of Oklahoma a handful of times. Through these experiences, he learned just how powerful water can be.
Hurricane Helene was graded as a Category 4 storm, which entails winds from 131-155 mph, extensive damage to roofing materials, windows and doors, along with storm major damage to lower floors of structures near the shore.
"Water can cause this destruction and just erase huge trees and huge structures," Smith said. "Some of the trees we saw in these debris piles were four feet around."
For Oklahomans unfamiliar with the impacts of a hurricane, Smith compared Hurricane Helene's destruction to that of the violent EF5 tornado that ravaged Moore on May 20, 2013.
That tornado killed 25 Oklahomans, left hundreds injured and destroyed nearly 1,100 homes. Hurricane Helene killed at least 228 people and caused catastrophic flooding in western North Carolina, east Tennessee and Virginia.
This type of devastation is why Smith and other firefighters signed up for the job, he said, to help people in need on the worst day of their life.
"Our guys always do an outstanding job," Smith said. "Everywhere we've been, people praise our guys on the task force for the work they do and their professionalism and commitment to doing things right. I just feel lucky to be a part of it, really."
Behind-the-scene efforts are just as important as groundwork
Smith led efforts on the ground in North Carolina surveying damage and searching for people among the debris. But behind the scenes, Tracy Walker is leading a group of people from the Oklahoma State Department of Health in assisting North Carolina with public health support.
The team is directing efforts from North Carolina's State Emergency Operations Center, along with providing support in state-run shelters and assessing environmental health issues.
People in Asheville, North Carolina, and other rural areas in the western region of the state are without clean drinking water after Hurricane Helene debilitated supplies.
Teams are working to address this issue, along with inspecting water wells and restaurants seeking to reopen.
These tasks mirror those that Oklahomans see after devastation strikes the Sooner State. It's a uniformed, streamlined process, Walker said. These administrative functions are just as important as the on-the-ground work, he added.
He's been doing this kind of work for about 12 years, six in Illinois and six in Oklahoma. But some on his team have never been to a federal response of this magnitude, so it's a great opportunity to get that experience, Walker said.
"There's a few hundred people out there working on this response every day," Walter said. "That gives everyone the opportunity to see from that level all the way down to some of the individual functions that are going on out in the field."
The National Incident Management System guides all levels of government when it comes to responding to and recovering from incidents. Being a part of this system is a huge task, Walker said, but it's a successful system that highlights the importance of the behind-the-scenes work.
"It's very structured," Walker said. "If it wasn't, it'd be just chaos. We're very fortunate to have that structure that we can follow, and everybody is pretty well trained up on that."
