AVERY COUNTY, N.C. — Working for the Harford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association, Andrew Doyle has seen his fair share of tragedy and destruction, but nothing quite like this.
"The pictures and videos don't do it justice. The mudslide debris, the debris from the houses, it's just piled up on the side of the road.,” Doyle told WMAR-2 News in a virtual interview Monday.
Last week, he traveled to Avery County, North Carolina to join the hundreds of first responders from all over the country assisting with clean-up and recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene. He plans to stay for a few more days.
"It's still happening. A lot of it has taken the side to Hurricane Milton, but they're still rebuilding here. It didn't stop because another hurricane came. The school system still isn't back in service, [and] lots of people [are] still without power."
The death toll from Helene has risen to 250. Four of those deaths were in Avery County, and crews are still searching for three missing people there.
"FEMA search and rescue teams are diligently working trying to search as much as they can. It’s more of a recovery effort now but the opportunity to bring closure to those three families is something that they’re hoping to do," Doyle said.
Meanwhile, the infrastructure has taken a huge hit. Bridges have collapsed. Roads are so damaged that they've become impassable. A lot of supplies are coming in via helicopter.
"The tightness of the community has really helped with everything. It's a very tight-knit community that looks out for each other. It's refreshing."
Neighbors are helping one another out, But help is coming from beyond their community as well..
"Tremendous amount of donations. They're running out of space to put stuff because of the generosity, so that's one of those good problems,” Doyle said. "We filled up two warehouses and we had to go outside of the county to use another warehouse."
Doyle says the majority of firefighters in this county are volunteers... “That are putting their house and their life back together that dropped everything to go help out. So if I can come down here and help them out a bit, that makes me feel better.“
He expects it will be years before many of these towns and cities in North Carolina are rebuilt.