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    • North Carolina Rescue Team Receives Jet Boat
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    North Carolina Rescue Team Receives Jet Boat

    Umito Posted on

    Corey Hampton once knew the whitewater section of the French Broad River like the back of his hand. She and her husband have been rafting this part of the river for over 25 years.

    They saw the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Helene up close. “It was historic beyond our wildest fears,” she said. “We found ourselves overwhelmed by Mother Nature.”

    An anonymous donor came forward to help them and their volunteer search and rescue team for the Walnut Fire Department in Madison County. (The Hamptons also owns French Broad Adventures, which offered whitewater rafting on Section 9, a small section of the river more than 200 miles long.)

    Normally, rescuers can take their inflatable rafts wherever they need to go. When Helene arrived, all the rocks and twists and turns of the river that Corey Hampton knew so well were gone. The volume of water in the river valley was about 100 times what they were used to seeing, she said.

    In the first days after the storm, Hampton saw homes and shipping containers being ripped from the ground and pulled down the river, rushing past it at speeds of about 30 mph. Their inflatable raft and paddles couldn’t take it.

    Walnut Township, which lies along Section 9, is very small with a small tax base, Hampton said. Volunteer firefighters don’t get a lot of money, and they didn’t have the sophisticated equipment or resources needed to fight the unprecedented storm and flooding caused by Helene.

    Communities of people relied on them and will continue to rely on the team. But after Helen, a single impact from debris flying down the river could have sunk their raft, and if that had happened, who else could have led the rescue missions?

    This new danger meant there were places on their river they couldn’t go. And that meant they couldn’t save everyone.

    “The trauma is going to take a minute to process,” Hampton said through tears. “There’s nothing worse for someone like me doing this to be able to say, I can’t help you right now, I’m not strong enough, I’m not equipped enough. … You don’t Can’t imagine how incredibly heartbreaking this is.”

    Anonymous donor provides unlikely help to search and rescue team

    An anonymous donor saw the need for better resources and paid for the team’s first jetboat to help with rescue missions. This is the first jet boat of its type in WNC, according to a Facebook post from the Walnut Fire Department.

    Rob Plank, owner of the River Raptor Jetboat, and lead technician Garath Brought, came from Belleville, Pennsylvania, to hand deliver the donor-purchased Jetboat XTR. Members of the Walnut Fire Department had the opportunity to receive an in-person training and maintenance review from the visiting River Raptor duo.

    “This boat is going to give us the opportunity to have the least chance against Mother Nature,” Hampton said. “We will now have more power, more speed, more resistance to shrapnel.”

    The company builds fishing boats and several commercial-style boats for law enforcement, firefighters and search and rescue operations. Their boats are all built with jet pumps allowing them to travel in shallow water.

    The XTR jet boat that the Walnut Volunteer Fire Department obtained is called a Rigid Hall Inflatable Boat. This design features a rigid aluminum bottom, a 150-horsepower inboard engine, and a 14-inch inflatable collar around the boat, giving it the ability to safely navigate through debris and rocks without damage.

    That boat, which could cost $60,000 to $75,000, was first built as a demonstration and then sold to firefighters, Plank said. Their company doesn’t typically hand deliver boats, but Plank wanted to get the vessel to them quickly.

    “It was rewarding to put this tool in their hands,” he said. “They were really excited to be able to go upstream, as well as if they needed to go downstream quickly. It allows them to target a lot quicker.”

    For a small department with limited resources, the boat is a game-changer. It could mean the difference between life and death for people.

    “I hope that the next time we are faced with a situation as astonishing as Hurricane Helene and the resulting flooding, I will have the tools to help more people,” Hampton said, choking up with her tears.

    Navigating Through Trauma after Hélène in WNC

    The last few weeks have been difficult for Hampton and her entire team, but the response from the community has been something she never could have imagined, she said.

    Nothing can change or undo the devastation and destruction caused by the storm. Nothing can bring back the lost lives. The lost houses.

    But for Hampton, the WNC community’s response highlighted the good in humanity. People coming together to help each other during an unprecedented and unfathomable tragedy is what gets him through each day. “It’s amazing to see people just say, I have more than I need right now, how can I help myself,” Hampton said.

    What’s next? Many river access points, managed by county and federal agencies, were destroyed.

    The department is currently working with county and federal organizations to repair them so they can put the new boat in the water. The donor who paid for the jetboat also offered to repair the access points, Hampton said. They have the tools, resources and people to help, but are just waiting for the green light from the government.

    In the meantime, people from the community came to bring the search and rescue team things like fresh lasagna and packed lunches. Or a listening ear. Others introduced themselves to the firefighters saying they knew how to ride a paddle boat and offered to help.

    Even though Helen took many lives and wreaked havoc, she could not crush the community’s compassion. The response Corey Hampton saw, that outpouring was the strength that allowed him to overcome his grief and return to work.

    Umito
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