Days after Hurricane Helene ravaged the southeastern U.S., Bert Light flew his private plane from Georgia to a small airport with no power in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
He brought 300 pounds of donated food, water, toilet paper, diapers and other necessities. At his destination, like in many towns across the south, the storm had downed trees, mangled powerlines, killed several people and left many shocked by the impact and in need of supplies.
State guardsmen rushed to meet the volunteer pilot from Atlanta on the runway. They were “hooting and hollering and saying, ‘Thank you, thank you,’” Light said. “And just couldn’t be more appreciative of what we were doing.”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
After Hurricane Helene curved north the morning of Sept. 27, pilots in Georgia took flight to deliver supplies to communities left desperate in its wake. Creeks flooded and swept away homes and people. Wind and rain clobbered mountain towns. Many roads were blocked, and some were completely destroyed.
Nearly 250 people have died across six states, and many are still missing, according to the Associated Press.
As soon as airports were deemed safe, pilots with small planes and helicopters flew into action, said Light, who volunteers with Angel Flight Soars, a nonprofit at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. The general aviation community donated their time and their aircraft to help.
Angel Flight Soars transported 60,000 pounds of supplies. Horizon Dreams Aviation in Cornelia, Georgia, delivered 12,000 pounds. A group of pilots out of Gainesville, Georgia, and the surrounding area moved 23,000 pounds.
They make up a fraction of the volunteers who contributed to the disaster relief after Helene.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Kim Freeman received donations at the Rutherford County Airport in North Carolina — near Lake Lure, Chimney Rock and Forest City and just across the state line from Spartanburg. She worked alongside other volunteers whose lives were upended by the hurricane. She was one of the fortunate, she said, because her power was only out for four days.
“A lot of people lost everything,” said Freeman, the executive director of Rutherford County Habitat for Humanity. A tree fell on one staff member’s home. Another employee’s father was found dead 750 feet away from his home after a mudslide carried him away.
Despite the devastation, volunteers showed up to the airport every day to help. They unloaded 546 planes in less than two weeks, Freeman said.
One of those planes belonged to Michelle Curcio, an Air Force veteran and flight instructor who owns Horizon Dreams Aviation flight school. She organized deliveries and made several trips herself to Rutherford County and throughout North Carolina and Tennessee.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
“Georgia was just so close that I just felt so obligated, you know? I’m too close not to help,” Curcio said. “I was like, ‘Well, it’s time to put these airplanes to work. That’s what they’re built for.’”
When Curcio landed in Elizabethton, Tennessee, the donations she brought ended up with Jeremy Dykes, a pastor who lives on his family farm 30 miles away in the small town of Telford. The Nolichucky River flooded the area he’s called home for 49 years and made it unrecognizable. His home became a hub where people came to get clean water, supplies and warm meals.
“It’s just hard for me to even fathom. We certainly have seen destruction,” Dykes said. “It’s broke my heart, because these are my people, and this is my family, and this is people that I’ve known all my life.
“We’re very blessed,” he added. “Even with the loss of life that we’ve had.”
Angel Flight Soars has a network of volunteer pilots that fly medical patients from across the southeast to hospitals to receive life-saving treatment. The trips may be a long drive but are often quick by air.
When disasters hit, the organization pivots its more than 1,500 volunteers to help deliver supplies.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
They moved 30 tons of donated goods to places in Helene’s path of destruction, from South Georgia to Tennessee and both Carolinas, said Jeanine Chambers, the nonprofit’s executive director.
“There’s a whole other area, always, after any storm, that’s affected that people really don’t know about,” she said. “We really try to reach out to very local communities.”
Independent pilots also activated their informal networks to get disaster relief to people right away. Tod Peavy from Gainesville made plans to fly supplies and sought donations through social media. But when goods began pouring in, he realized he needed more planes.
Another 56 eager pilots joined in. Combined, they flew a total of 79 missions and delivered 23,000 pounds of supplies in nine days across Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, he said.
“Every day, everything that came in would be flown out that day,” Peavy said. “That was one of the big things that we kind of bragged about: ‘If your stuff comes to us today, by tonight, it’s gonna be in the hands of someone who needs it, or it will be there waiting on them when they do need it.’”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Deliveries by air slowed down as roads reopened and other resources arrived. Philip Holloway, another volunteer pilot with Angel Flight Soars, took off on one of the last relief flights Thursday from the DeKalb-Peachtree Airport.
He said the time and work it takes to fly to disaster areas costs him a small price but has a significant impact for someone in need.
“I look at these communities that just have nothing,” Holloway said, before departing for Statesboro, Georgia. “I can’t imagine what those people, their quality of life is, what they’re having to go through.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Freeman, who helped organize incoming donations in North Carolina, said the support has been overwhelming and emotional. In the coming weeks, her community will pivot to the long-term work of repairing and rebuilding.
“It’s not going to be over next week. This is a long recovery process,” Freeman said. “But we couldn’t — we would not even be involved or even where we are right now — if it hadn’t have been for the aviation community.”
