SPOKANE, Wash. — Crews from the Pacific Northwest are already on the ground in North Carolina assisting with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Lieutenant Brendan Craig has worked with the Spokane Fire Department for the last decade. He's down in North Carolina as part of a Critical Incident Management Team helping with clean up and assistance after Hurricane Helene.
His team of 50 first responders from Washington, Oregon and Alaska will be there for the next two weeks.
Craig said the level of devastation in that region is hard to comprehend.
"We had a whole lot of wildfires in our region this year, which caused destruction in a large area," Craig said. "But this is a half of a state that has issues."
"It's pretty bad," Craig continued. "... I know whole buildings are wiped out. We got semi-trucks rolled over. There's garbage on the tops of trees because they were underwater. Whole buildings are gone. Houses are gone. There's vehicles that are up to their roof in mud."
Craig said his team will help wherever they're needed. Sometimes it will be clean-up, or it could be distributing critical supplies like food or water for survivors.
North Idaho agencies also sent crews to the East Coast to help with hurricane recovery efforts.