Millions are trying to pick up the pieces after Hurricane Helene devastated much of the Southeast. Several Maryland-based rescue teams have been deployed to sift through the rubble and help stranded Americans.
“The word that keeps coming up is ‘catastrophic,’” Pete Piringer with Montgomery County Fire and Rescue told WTOP.
He has been in constant contact with both Maryland Task Force 1 and Maryland’s Helicopter Aquatic Response Team (HART), which are now deployed west of Asheville, North Carolina.
“This is, to us, a Katrina type of event. It’s going to be months and years before things are made whole again,” Piringer said, describing that pictures and video from the devastation do not do it justice.
Much of the affected area is rural and isolated. Roads, bridges and other ways out have been swept away completely and even cut off by landslides.
“They have a high level experience, but they also are being extremely challenged by the situation too,” Piringer said. “The connectivity, the infrastructure, is decimated.”
Maryland’s HART team has been exceptionally busy flying their choppers over the isolated areas and using aerial hoists to get people and pets to safety.
“They have been responsible for rescuing and evacuating hundreds of people,” said Piringer.
Rescue teams could be deployed for up to two weeks.
Hurricane Helene has killed at least 133 people. Hundreds more are still unaccounted for, as of Monday night.
President Joe Biden is set to visit North Carolina to survey the damage Wednesday.
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