CALERA, Ala. (WIAT) -- Central Alabama first responders are helping with clean-up and recovery efforts following Hurricane Helene.
The Calera Fire Department is one of several agencies across Alabama that’s been sent out to North Carolina to help. The Alabama Mutual Aid System has been deployed about 20 minutes east of Asheville to Buncombe County.
Calera Fire Chief Sean Kendrick said the city sent six members of its water rescue team to help agencies based in Hoover, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills and Birmingham.
“They were diverted to an airport, and they had to be flown in by a helicopter because there was no access," Kendrick said. "All of the roads and bridges were washed out.”
But it’s not just them. American Red Cross David Rauch spokesperson said about 30 people from the Birmingham area have teamed up with 1,400 others nationwide.
“Right now, we’re focused on sheltering, giving people a roof over their head, a place to sleep, eat, because a lot of these people have lost everything,” Rauch said. “We are of course supplying emotional support, and then as the days go on, we’ll be going into mobile feeding and more disaster assessment.”
The American Red Cross said monetary donations are best and you can help by texting Helene to 90999.
“Those dollars allow us to go into those communities and get those people exactly what they need,” Rauch said.
They said money and prayers help.
“We would all appreciate the prayers from everyone in the community for the first responders and also for the victims in that area and also through the southeast because there’s a lot of folks that sustained a lot of damage,” Kendrick said. “The area they’re working was really totally decimated. It’s a small community. A lot of the folks are related to each other. As the water came through, I believe they said it was just a few minutes before everything was wiped away. Anyone that didn’t make it out was just swept away with the water.”