Volunteers with Indiana’s Task Force One, including two local firefighters, responded to more than 100 calls within 24 hours as Hurricane Florence hammered parts of North Carolina, causing major flooding.
Michael Pruitt and Sean Campbell, both volunteer firefighters with the Bargersville Community Fire Department and long-time Johnson County residents, were part of the crew that tried to rescue a family after a large tree fell on the bedroom of a home on Friday. A man was rescued, but a mother and infant were killed, and the story made national news as the first deaths from the storm.
Indiana Task Force One sent 86 first responders from around the state to help in the wake of the hurricane, which was downgraded to a Category 1 by the time it came ashore late last week.
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Although the water levels are expected to begin receding, the group isn’t heading home yet. Pruitt said Indiana Task Force One could remain in the area another week or longer.
The task force recorded 105 mph winds Friday. They had already moved to Wilmington from Raleigh, N.C. ahead of the storm that has since dropped several feet of rain on the region and caused major flooding in some neighborhoods. They first set up shop at Wilmington International Airport, but moved this weekend to a vacant Sears store further inland, Pruitt said Monday morning.
“It’s 7 a.m. and our team has been going for 24 hours. Absolutely one of the most challenging nights our team has ever experienced. There won’t be much down time. The rain is still falling,” Pruitt posted on social media Sunday morning. He has responded to 13 natural disasters in his career as part of the task force.
Indiana’s first responders helped as the Wilmington Fire Department and other state and national agencies responded to more than 100 calls this weekend. Most of those rescues happened between 10:30 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Sunday, Pruitt said.
“The first call came in from a family who needed to get out of their home because of high water, and then they just kept coming,” Pruitt said.
“This was a case where water was rising fast in several neighborhoods and we immediately had to start evacuating people. Things amped up in about a two-hour period. We were in the middle of a torrential downpour. A tornado touched down right next to us. It took us (several hours) to get everyone out of their homes, including dogs and pets and even an iguana.”
Crews helped move families and animals to local shelters overnight. About six inches of surface water quickly became knee-deep, he said. It was up to four or five feet in lower areas.
Pruitt guessed about half of Wilmington’s residents heeded the warning and evacuated. Most of the ones who did not were elderly, he said.
“It was fairly quiet until it wasn’t. As the rain continued, we all of a sudden had these pop-up incidents in several neighborhoods,” Pruitt said.
Most of the emergency calls Sunday and Monday were for non-severe medical assistance or drivers cut off by flooded roadways, he said.
Pruitt said on Monday that water levels were starting to go down, but they are continuing to keep an eye on the Cape Fear River, which runs through the middle of downtown Wilmington. It is expected to crest today or Wednesday.
“It could be a non-event or it could be pretty severe, so we’re monitoring it closely,” he said.
The American Red Cross deployed 72 Indiana disaster workers to the coast, including David Owens of Greenwood. These volunteers are assisting with sheltering, feeding, logistics, external relations and overall management of the operations.
Four local utility workers who were on standby with two large rigs will not head to the coast, Johnson County REMC CEO John Sturm said Monday.
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If you would like to help those affected by Hurricane Florence, here are a few ways you can do that:
call 1-800-REDCROSS;
text the word FLORENCE to 90999 to make a $10 donation;
donate blood by scheduling an appointment on the Red Cross Blood Donor app;
visit www.redcross.org for more information.
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