Cajun Navy Activates After Hurricane Helene, Says It Can Be Compared to Katrina

FAIRVIEW, NC – Hurricane Helene caused destruction of “biblical proportions” in parts of the Appalachian Mountains, inspiring comparisons to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, according to an official with a volunteer search and rescue team.

The hurricane’s death toll has risen to at least 190 and the number is expected to rise in the coming weeks as authorities continue rescue and reconstruction efforts.

“I personally lost everything I owned during Hurricane Katrina, which was one of the reasons I did it,” said Ben Husser, vice president of the Louisiana-based Cajun Navy 2016 search and rescue group.

“I can tell you it will take some time. It won’t be an overnight recovery. We are talking about years and these people will suffer. They need all the resources that are available to them and will be available to them. Coming back from this will be a long and hard fight.”

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Husser said Helene is “totally” comparable to Katrina.

“These are hard-working people. They’re just trying to survive from day to day. Most of them would not have been adequately prepared for such devastation. These are biblical proportions.… I’ve heard people… compare it to Katrina. Definitely I would say it’s worse in some ways because it’s spread out over a huge area, you know, hundreds of hundred miles.

“This is of biblical proportions.”

—Ben Husser

Fairview resident James LaTrella told Fox News Digital that a neighbor gave him cash and gas after his home was destroyed in the hurricane. Other residents traveled to the cities from their mountain neighborhoods to collect water and food for elderly residents or young mothers with children who need diapers and formula.

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“We’re pretty rough people here, but this thing is bigger than all of us,” Richard Blaloch told Fox News Digital as he collected non-potable water that the Fairview, North Carolina, Fire Department collected from a nearby creek that residents can use for flushing toilets and other water and sewage purposes.

Volunteer pilots offer private helicopters to deliver supplies and rescue people. Other volunteers deliver Starlink systems to remote areas without power, data roaming and cell phone service.

“I think people are really… just in shock and still wondering, ‘Where do we start?’ What’s going on?”. People are still missing. But… something that’s unique about North Carolinians and westerners is not that they say, “Okay, let’s just give up” – Charlotte, North Carolina. , city councilor Tariq Bokhari, who went to Lake Lure for the weekend with friends who live there, told Fox News Digital. “It would be really easy to say, ‘This is too much. “I give up.”

Bokhari added that “hundreds, if not thousands” of Charlotte residents have contacted her asking how they can help residents in the western part of the state.

“This is a resilient and very positive group,” Bokhari said of those affected by Helene. “It just goes to show that no matter how bad something is — and it seems really bad, as bad as anyone here has seen — that spirit will ultimately lead them to adapt and solve the problem.”

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Numerous volunteer organizations in and out of the state have been stationed in western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, parts of Georgia and Florida since the weekend.

First responders and military personnel from across the United States also traveled to affected areas to assist with rescue and recovery efforts, as well as delivering donations.

Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian humanitarian aid organization based in Boone, has volunteers in several states affected by the hurricane and has also established a 20-bed field hospital in Linville for patients in need.

“The destruction is truly heartbreaking. And so many families are without electricity and water. It is difficult to stay in touch with people and communicate because many cell phone towers are damaged. It’s really overwhelming,” Kaitlyn Josten, a spokeswoman for the organization, told Fox News Digital.

“People lost their homes to floods and mudslides, as well as to wind damage that caused trees to fall and crush homes. This is a completely different phenomenon. I’m from North Carolina. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen there.”

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Josten added that people are still “trapped in their homes, especially in the mountains, in some of the more rural areas, where maybe there’s already a gravel road that they can’t get out of right now.”

“I think it’s hard to say exactly what the extent of the damage is at this point,” she said.

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Samaritan’s Purse is asking Americans to pray for those affected by the storm. The organization is also looking for more volunteers to work at five different response sites. Volunteers can come to help for the day if they live in the area or are staying overnight with other Samaritan’s Purse staff.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) arrived in western North Carolina on Monday after Governor Roy Cooper announced that President Biden had approved federal resources.

In Fairview and other nearby towns such as Swannanoa, Black Mountain, Biltmore Forest and Boone, some residents were trapped in their mountainside homes after roads were completely washed out by flooding, unable to communicate with loved ones and emergency personnel.

Curtis Drafton, an Army veteran and founder of the Veterans Hall of Fame, has been helping respond to natural disasters with other veteran volunteers for 13 years.

Drafton was initially sent to Florida to respond to the destruction there, but when he began receiving emergency signals in his home state of North Carolina, he and other volunteers regrouped and headed back north.

“We probably had to evacuate 50 people in 90 minutes. It’s very irregular.”

—Curtis Drafton

“So when we got down to the ground, there was probably… six, just to be modest, six feet of water still flowing, fast flowing,” Draton recalled. “So we know there will probably be a need for water rescue, rapid water rescue and things like that. We start unloading, start preparing the rafts, and finally make contact with the sheriff’s office. He asked us to dispatch to a certain area off 26th. We probably had to evacuate 50 people in 90 minutes, which is very irregular.”

Drafton described destroyed roads and bridges, mudslides and rockslides.

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“It’s worth thinking about this: every training session we did in any terrain, apart from training in the desert, was simultaneously during a very heavy downpour,” he said. “I mean, there were just a lot of hurdles to overcome to reach these people… but we’re used to that.”

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He said residents in areas devastated by Helene had lost “everything.”

“America must unite. Imagine if these people lost everything. All. So I tell people that when we do donation drives, there’s no such thing as, “Will they need this?” They need everything: food, water, hygiene supplies, medical supplies, tents, tarps, all nine — they need it all,” Drafton said.