A group of volunteers who saved an 11-day-old baby in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene questioned where the federal government and state leadership are as devastated communities continue to reel from the historic storm.
Florida Guard Special Missions Unit’s Jon Howard, Aerial Recovery’s Charlie Keebaugh, pilot Mark Roseman and civilian helicopter pilot Zeb Hadley are conducting search and rescue operations in North Carolina as the Biden-Harris administration’s leadership remains in question over their response to the catastrophe.
“There’s just a complete failure of weak leadership here in North Carolina, the federal government, and it takes mind-strong leadership in Florida to send us up here,” Howard told Bill Hemmer on Friday. “If it wasn’t for DeSantis sending the state guard special missions unit up here, this never even would have happened. But there’s just no support here. There’s no leadership.”
“When we meet these locals on the ground, they’re asking, like, ‘You’re from the state guard?’ I’m like, ‘I am from Florida,’ and they’re like, ‘Where’s North Carolina?’ You know, they’re asking where their leadership is,” he continued. “They have no understanding of what’s going on, and then we’ve even had people, officials here, try to kick us out of Lakemoor, out of Chimney Rock… Nonsense stuff. They’re asking me for my authorizations to be here… It’s the most insane thing you would ever see. It’s like they want these people to die.”
A rescue team paddles down the Swannanoa River on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. The remnants of Hurricane Helene caused widespread flooding, downed trees, and power outages in western North Carolina. (Travis Long/The News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
President Biden has pledged to provide significant resources to aid in the recovery efforts, acknowledging the immense cost – estimated to be in the billions of dollars. To expedite the delivery of essential supplies to those in need, Biden is directing the Defense Department to deploy 1,000 active-duty soldiers.
But critics say his action hasn’t been enough to help those struggling without food, power and water one week after the storm made landfall.
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., also slammed the Biden administration for the Helene response, telling Laura Ingraham he saw his first Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) truck on Thursday, after traveling to various locations to help struggling residents.
“There’s been a complete pattern of abandonment under Biden and Harris,” Mills said during “The Ingraham Angle” on Thursday, citing the administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and civil unrest in Haiti.
“This administration, what the pattern is, you have to shame them into doing what is right,” he continued.
Amid criticism targeting Biden and Harris over their hurricane response, some volunteers have taken action themselves to help those in urgent need as hundreds remain missing, and the death toll continues to climb.
The relief efforts of Howard, Keebaugh, Roseman and Hadley included the miraculous saving of a newborn baby who was in dire need of oxygen after the storm hit. Ultimately, their action saved the baby’s life.
“I reached out to my state guard team that was on the ground, didn’t know their exact location. And then my paramedic, Paul, he was actually a few minutes away from there, and he was able to rush over there to stabilize that baby to get ready for LifeFlight while the rest of the team, Mark and HLZ, sent us imagery that way Mark could put the helicopter down,” Howard said.
“Charlie was doing all the coordinating, and then we grabbed that baby,” he continued. “The mom and grandma threw on the helicopter as fast as we could. Mark flew us right to the Asheville Airport, did his first rooftop landing in a very small crosswind, and doctors and nurses were right there on standby and saved that baby’s life.”
Volunteers rescued an 11-day-old baby in need of oxygen after Hurricane Helene. (‘America’s Newsroom’ screengrab)
Howard mentioned that he has stayed in contact with the family, and the newborn is alive and healthy.
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Keebaugh, who is the chief development officer at Aerial Recovery, explained the significance of the organization’s work post-Helene as human traffickers try to seize upon the disaster for their own benefit.
“We also respond to disasters because a lot of people don’t realize when there’s a natural disaster or a manmade disaster, human traffickers show up… you’ve got people missing, thousands of people from this area missing. What’s five more? That’s the attitude of the traffickers,” he said.
“So they will come up, they’ll come to shelters. They’ll come to your homes,” he continued. “So that’s one thing we look out for while we’re here, but we’ve also got several trained disaster response technicians on our team.”
At least 224 people have lost their lives across six states, with North Carolina bearing the brunt of the devastation. As more areas are searched for the first time, that number is expected to rise. The lack of phone service and electricity in the region hampers efforts to locate missing individuals.
Search crews are meticulously combing through the mountains, hoping to find survivors among the reported missing. Their efforts have been hampered by washed-out roads, downed power lines and mudslides. Helene has now become the second-deadliest hurricane to strike the U.S. mainland in 55 years.
“Seeing devastation like you’ve never seen,” Roseman said. “People trapped. Roads are just demolished. There’s no way in and out… There’s no communication. The only lifeline is just coming in there, either flying the sick out or either us taking in supplies, so it’s just a lot. I’ve never seen devastation like this.”
FOX Weather’s Steven Yablonski and Chris Oberholtz contributed to this report.