As a health care provider, Jennifer Green is trained and conditioned to pay attention to the needs of her patients. Her intuition of providing care applies to her friends as well. So, when her high school pal Kerri Hampton, who lives in Fairview, North Carolina, shared that her neighborhood had been hard hit by Hurricane Helene, Green immediately formed a plan to collect and deliver needed supplies.
“Kerri’s house is one of the highest elevations in her neighborhood, but most of her neighbors down the mountain lost their homes,” Green said. “She asked if we could help them.”
Green had already been inspired by a Facebook post from Bill Herbkersman, seeking other small-plane pilots to fly supplies into areas throughout Western North Carolina.
“I’m a pilot, but not experienced, so I asked my instructor if he would fly up with me,” Green said. Bill Shank agreed.
Green put out a call on Facebook to her friends and patients and began collecting donated goods at her practice, Advanced Health Care in Bluffton Village. The response was quick and plentiful.
Tom and Cheryl Curry (in navy shirts), assisted by their sons and friends, celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary October 9 loading donated supplies onto several trucks for delivery to North Carolina.
“Our community really steps up in times like this,” Green said. “I made one post that morning and by noon I had more stuff than I could carry in one trip. On October 3, we took up about 200 pounds of water, lighters, batteries – and a lot of solar lights.”
People kept bringing donations, so Green and her daughter, Cooper, planned to drive more supplies to Fairview two days later. Hampton had made a special request: Cookies.
Green said her patients sprung to action again and brought boxes of sweets – many of them homemade. Those sweet treats were met with smiles and gratitude.
“Just seeing that we brought them a minute of joy was worth the effort,” Green said. “People ask ‘Does my $100 really make a difference?’ We chose this one neighborhood, and we know it does make a difference.”
The plea for pilots started on September 29 with Herbkersman’s Facebook post that he would be flying up to the Asheville airport, where he knew there was a relief network set up, and asked for other pilots to help.
“I had between 700 and 800 likes and close to 80 shares,” he said. “I started getting calls within an hour from local and statewide people asking, ‘how can we help?’”
Herbkersman said he heard from pilots as far away as Jacksonville and Myrtle Beach, but most were from the island and Bluffton. He shared information on Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs), airport conditions, and other information.
“There was no coordinated effort, but that’s no surprise,” Herbkersman said. “Most pilots are independent and go where they need to go.”
Kerri Hampton, left, of Fairview, North Carolina, greets her good friend Jennifer Green of Bluffton and pilot William Shank as they arrive at Rutherford County Airport October 3 with donated supplies for Hampton’s neighborhood southeast of Asheville that was hard hit by Hurricane Helene.
Herbkersman said he had requested medications from MUSC, but they got redirected to a truck, he had an extra spot in his plane, and invited local newscaster Andrew Davis of WSAV-TV to ride along – “with the sole intent of getting more publicity for the missions,” Herbkersman said. “Andrew went above and beyond by doing more than his share of the loading and unloading, and he was also able to capture the emotions and feelings of some of the people we were helping.”
Herbkersman has long flown relief missions after hurricanes, including flights to the Abacos, Puerto Rico, and New Orleans. “I knew, based on reports, how critical this mission would be because of the isolation, and access to those hardest hit was cut off because of the damage to the roads,” he said.
One of the first pilots to connect with Herbkersman after his post was businessman and pilot Tom Curry.
“He contacted me half a dozen times for info and strategies, and since this was his first time, he wanted to learn and was eager to help,” Herbkersman said. “So, we talked extensively about what to do. He’s done a great job.”
In talking to Herbkersman, Curry decided that instead of him spending time flying back and forth, he wanted to organize others and collect needed items.
Neighbors in the small town of Fairview, North Carolina, southeast of Asheville, applaud their unknown benefactors from Bluffton and Hilton Head Island. Jennifer Green of Bluffton and her flight instructor, William Shank, flew from Hilton Head to nearby Rutherford County Airport October 3 to deliver donated supplies for her high school friend Kerri Hampton and Kerri’s neighbors.
“I am a pilot, but I wound up getting more involved in organizing. I spent all day, from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed, on the phone recruiting volunteers, recruiting pilots, collecting supplies, setting up drop locations and finding warehousing for supplies,” Curry said. “Within 24 hours I had collected so much more supplies than I expected. I knew it was way too much to fly, and I started focusing my attention to trucking the products.”
Curry rented three trucks and recruited drivers to take the supplies to Asheville.
He also organized seven private airplanes and their pilots to fly insulin and other medical supplies and other donations to Operation Air Drop in Hickory, North Carolina. “(They) turned out to be an amazing operation,” Curry said. “They were a hub where supplies flew in with fixed aircraft were then distributed to areas in need by helicopter.”
Dr. Matthew Epps and his wife, Jane, have provided “thousands of pounds” of medical supplies, Curry said, including first aid kits, IV’s, Benadryl, aspirin, and pain relievers.
Curry’s wife, Cheryl, and their sons worked alongside him gathering and organizing donations, loading trucks, and keeping track of supplies, drivers and destinations. The family has been involved in a number of relief efforts in recent years, including the memorable 2015 Hurricane Joaquin that brought historic flooding to Columbia. Curry shut his company down for a week and had his employees help collect supplies and drive trucks to deliver the goods.
“My wife and I spent our wedding anniversary that year collecting supplies and loading trucks,” Curry said. “It was funny that on on October 9 this year, we spent our 30th anniversary doing the same thing!”
At press time, continuation of relief efforts was undecided. By October 11, Herbkersman said, FEMA was restricting access to major airports.
However, “I plan on staying on top of this until the end of the year, realizing that the scope of the mission may change weekly,” Herbkersman said. “But a flight a week, bringing in what is needed and taking out those who need it, is kind of the plan.”
Some local donation collection points were open until the end of October, about the same time as reports from North Carolina indicated some churches and other reception locations were overwhelmed with an abundance of tangled clothing and chaotic disorganization. “We just don’t have the volunteers to separate all this,” a woman in North Carolina posted recently.
Curry suggested anyone interested in helping could donate funds to known organizations and churches. Samaritan’s Purse and Operation Air Drop were among his recommended nonprofits.
