6,700 National Guard Troops Continue Helene Response

6,700 National Guard Troops Continue Helene Response

huricane relief
Photo by: U.S. Army National Guard/Spc. Kemarvo Smith

More than 6,700 National Guard troops are on duty in the disaster zones left behind by Hurricane Helene, according to National Guard Bureau officials, who said the recovery will be “a long process.”

The massive storm, which made landfall Sept. 26 on Florida’s Gulf Coast, was “a thousand-year storm,” Maj. Gen. Win Burkett, National Guard Bureau director of operations, J3/4, said Oct. 3 in a call with reporters. “This is going to be a long recovery process, and even though all eyes are on those states and that appears to be the center of gravity, the center of gravity is where the survivor’s home is, where their neighbors are.”

After landfall in Florida, Hurricane Helene tore into the Southeast, including the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, the Associated Press reported. More than 200 people have been killed, hundreds are still missing, many lack basic services such as running water, cellphone service and electricity, and many residents are marooned in remote hamlets where roads have disappeared, according to the AP.

Soldiers and airmen from National Guard formations in 16 states, including those in the disaster zones, have blanketed the area to conduct presence patrols, clear debris, rescue stranded people with high-water vehicles, deliver relief supplies and personnel, distribute aid, and help with search-and-rescue operations and route clearance, among other needed missions.

More than 40 helicopters and close to 600 military vehicles to support first responders and local, state and federal officials have been marshalled for operations.

Adding manpower and logistics capabilities, some 1,000 soldiers from the XVIII Airborne Corps deployed Oct. 3 to western North Carolina to provide critical aid to affected communities.

Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division and other units stationed at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, are part of an infantry battalion task force that will support the delivery of food, water and other critical aid “over the last mile to the point of need,” according to a DoD news release.

Aviation crews from the Tennessee National Guard are working with county emergency management agencies to “reach all of the communities that may be cut off from ground transportation … and we are working to open up that infrastructure, whether that’s through debris removal on the engineer teams or doing convoy and route assessments to try and find alternate ways to reach those ground communities,” Lt. Col. Meredith Richardson of the Tennessee National Guard said during the call.

The disaster response timeframe will be determined by each state’s governor, Burkett said, explaining that each state will decide when they can shift from life-sustaining operations to sustainment to recovery and longer-term operations.

“We’re here until the mission is done, however long that takes, and we’re a week into it,” Col. Paul Hollenack of the North Carolina National Guard said during the call.

Praising the actions of the region’s first responders, Burkett said they are an “incredibly big part of this recovery.” He added that recovery operations such as what is taking place in the wake of Hurricane Helene will always be part of what the National Guard does, but not all that it does.

“I think storms we’ve seen in the last couple of years, while they do continue to intensify, our community’s ability to build resiliency and to respond and help each other will make us much stronger,” Burkett said. “The Guard will always have a role in that, but our role in winning the next war is our No. 1 priority.”