107th unit members help with Helene recovery in North Carolina
Oct. 17—The recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene continue for North Carolinians, but soldiers from Western New York have played a part in easing their struggles.
Eleven members of the 107th Attack Wing's Fatality Search and Recovery Team based out of Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station spent the past two weeks in North Carolina helping locals put the pieces back together. Their work was mainly done in the western Carolina town of Burnsville, about a 40-minute drive northeast of Asheville.
Helene devastated much of western North Carolina last month, with the City of Asheville suffering extensive damage from flooding and rainfall. Gov. Roy Cooper confirmed 95 deaths in the state, 11 of which were in Yancey County where the 107th was sent, and 92 people still remain missing.
Cpt. Shawn Lavin, the officer in charge of the team, said the devastation was the most he had ever seen in a military operation like this. Roads were completely swept away with houses and fire trucks flipped over.
"When we got there, we didn't know where we were going to live, what to do, where to report to," Lavin said. "Those kinds of conditions were some of the most challenging in a long time."
Having formed around 10 years ago, the 107th's fatality search and recovery team was part of the initial responses to COVID-19 in Manhattan in 2020 and performed search and rescue operations during the Christmas 2022 blizzard.
The team ended up living in a high school locker room with no running water and the electricity did not return until their third day there.
The team had two main tasks. The first was teaming with a fire recovery unit from Kansas to check on the welfare of residents and look for any fatalities in the mountains. The second was working with the local medical examiner to help collect the remains of those who died during the hurricane.
They ended up helping out hundreds of North Carolinians in all sorts of ways, from bringing supplies and connecting residents with local resources to supporting the local fire department.
The 107th was one of many military units assigned to help recovery, with approximately 3,400 soldiers and airmen from 12 different states currently assisting. Burnsville still needed plenty of work done with road repair and restoring utilities, jobs that were not part of the 107th's duties.
"People would always ask where we're from," Lavin said, getting shocked responses when saying they were from New York. "They were so thankful we were there. They had a lot of gratitude for the military and National Guard there."
