Three members of the Asheville Fire Department have returned home after their deployment to assist North Carolina Emergency Management during Hurricane Erin.
Senior Firefighter Anthony Evans and Captain Isaac McCurry served on the Field Communications Team.
Two members of the Asheville Fire Department Field Communications Team (FC1), Senior Firefighter Anthony Evans and Captain Isaac McCurry, were deployed as one of three Communications Strike Teams working out of the Regional Coordination Center-East in Kinston. Communication Strike Teams are state-certified communication technicians who are staged at a central location of the emergency. Potential assignments include restoring or correcting damaged infrastructure, resolving responder communication needs, attending all briefings, assisting with communications planning, and pre-positioning equipment into historically compromised areas.
“We arrived Tuesday evening and completed the initial check-in process. Wednesday, we began the process of ensuring our communication resources we had brought, as well as the state communications resources, were mission-ready for the field,” McCurry said. “ In the afternoon, we were assigned to Carteret County to provide and set up equipment to ensure their most flood-prone areas could sustain communications during and after the storm.”
Fortunately, the storm did not affect critical infrastructure (commercial or public safety). Teams were released from RCC-E on Friday and returned to Asheville.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to serve in this capacity to help others, as so many came to help us in our time of need,” McCurry said.
Battalion Chief Trey Young served on the North Carolina Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team.
In addition to the two deployed for communications, Battalion Chief Trey Young was deployed with the North Carolina Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team (NCHART).
“I was one member of a 7-person flight crew, four aviators from the North Carolina National Guard, myself, and 2 Charlotte firefighters,” said Trey Young. “Our assigned aircraft was a UH-60L (Blackhawk) helicopter. We deployed from our base (Army Aviation Support Facility #2) in Salisbury to forward stage at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock. Our assigned Area of Responsibility was the entire coast with a specific focus on the Outer Banks; from Manteo, south to Ocracoke Island.”
NCHART flight crews assisted North Carolina Emergency Management (NCEM) by conducting survey flights of the Outer Banks to perform damage assessments and identify potential landing zones for a variety of aircraft/mission profiles. Crews also performed stakeholder engagement, including just-in-time training for Marine Corps aircraft rescue & firefighting (ARFF) crews and air traffic controllers (ATC).