Private helicopter pilots band together to help hundreds of hurricane victims

By Ashley R. Williams and Brad Lendon, CNN

(CNN) — A group of about 100 volunteer helicopter pilots is flying around 400 relief missions a day over North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene, one of its co-founders says.

Matt McSwain says the group has more than 90 helicopters registered to help out Operation Helo, which formed a week ago after the hurricane devastated parts of the state, leaving entire communities destroyed and roads to hard-hit areas cut off.

Operation Helo’s goal is to quickly deliver essential supplies including diapers, food, water and insulin. The pilots also perform helicopter medical evacuations and search and rescue operations, according to the organization’s Facebook page and website.

In a Facebook post from four days ago, the group says it had rescued more than 400 people from storm-hit areas.

“We’re doing the best we can to keep these people alive,” McSwain says.

“Our mission is simple: when disaster strikes, we fly,” the website says.

Based at an airport in Hickory, North Carolina, the group formed with the help of social media and word of mouth among the pilot community, McSwain told CNN’s Omar Jimenez on Sunday.

The public seems to have responded, too. The website and social media campaigns have yielded more than a half-million dollars in donations to pay for helicopter fuel, a Facebook post says.

At least 117 people have died from Helene in North Carolina, according to a CNN tally.

The number of people missing in the state is unclear, Deanne Criswell, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told CNN.

Lillian Govus, a spokesperson for Buncombe County in western North Carolina, said Saturday that hundreds of county residents are either missing or stranded in the wake of the hurricane.

McSwain shared the story of what an Operation Helo mission found on a recent flight.

In a remote North Carolina town, the team encountered an elderly couple sitting in front of a damaged brick storefront.

McSwain shared an image, which showed the couple sitting in a rocking chair and a wheelchair. It was taken outside of Whitson Furniture and General Store in Green Mountain, North Carolina, which took a hit from the storm.

“(The team) walked up to the building and this elderly couple was sitting there and refused to leave because their great grandson, 8 years old, was dead in the rafters,” McSwain said. “They had no way to get him out and didn’t know what to do with him.”

He said the group is continuing its efforts to reach people in remote locations in the mountains.

“It’s not that these people don’t have power,” McSwain added. “They don’t have windows and doors on their home, if they even have a home.”

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