Tillis and Budd say active-duty military leader should be assigned to Helene response

Avi Bajpai, The News & Observer on Oct 5, 2024

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RALEIGH, N.C. — U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd said Friday that an active-duty military leader should be assigned to oversee the rescue and recovery efforts in western North Carolina.

After President Joe Biden approved up to 1,000 U.S. Army soldiers stationed at Fort Liberty to assist with the response to Hurricane Helene on Wednesday, the first 400 active-duty troops arrived in the region on Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.

In a statement Friday evening, Tillis and Budd said the National Guard along with local, state and federal first responders had been “working tirelessly to respond to this disaster with the resources they have,” but added that the response could be aided by an active-duty military leader being assigned to the effort.

“Given the unprecedented extent of the devastation and complexity of search and rescue operations, it would be helpful to assign an active-duty military leader who has extensive experience with operations of this magnitude to lead moving forward,” both senators said.

In a post on social media, meanwhile, Budd said that the deployment of the remaining activated troops from Fort Liberty needed to speed up.

The U.S. Department of Defense said Wednesday that the troops it had authorized to assist with the response were “assembling and moving to the affected areas within the next 24 hours.”

“It has been two days since President Biden authorized 1,000 troops to aid North Carolinians,” Budd wrote on X. “Less than half have been deployed from Fort Liberty to Western NC. There’s no time to waste.”

400 active-duty troops deployed to western North Carolina

On Friday, FEMA announced that 400 active-duty soldiers had arrived in the western part of the state to help deliver critical supplies like food and water to distribution sites, and were “prioritizing survivors in hard-to-reach areas along the route.”

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who has been on the ground in western North Carolina, said in a statement that soldiers from the 18th Airborne Corps, including members of the 82nd Airborne Division and other units from Fort Liberty, were supporting the relief effort, including by providing command and control personnel, transportation, infrastructure support, supplies and services, fuel and other support to people.”

The active-duty troops along with National Guard members are under the command of Brig. Gen. Charles Morrison of the North Carolina National Guard, who has been appointed as the dual-status commander for the state, a U.S. Army spokesperson told The News & Observer.

The dual-status commander has authority under law to command both active-duty and National Guard troops, and can serve in federal and state statuses at the same time, the spokesperson said.

Ahead of additional troops arriving on Friday, the N.C. National Guard sent seven heavy-lift CH-47 Chinook helicopters it received from the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty to western North Carolina.

Capt. Tim Marshburn, a spokesman for the N.C. National Guard, said the helicopters were sent to Asheville, from where they would be directed to other parts of the region as needed.

Marshburn said Friday morning that the helicopters were “engaged in commodity deliveries and rescue and recovery efforts,” and said those soldiers “will be activated for as long as the mission requires.”

As part of those efforts, the N.C. National Guard said in a social media post that its soldiers and airmen were breaking down and preparing pallets carrying more than 80,000 pounds of food and water that had been flown to a logistics hub in Asheville by the U.S. Army and Air Force, and would be delivered by troops with the 82nd Airborne Division.

In the week since Helene barreled through the state, more than 1,200 N.C. National Guard soldiers and airmen have responded to western North Carolina to conduct search and rescue operations and transport critical supplies to the area, Gov. Roy Cooper’s office said.

The N.C. National Guard’s efforts have included 417 specialized vehicles and 26 aircraft that had been deployed to support those operations as of Friday, his office said.

In the meantime, N.C. National Guard leaders were “actively engaged in planning the best way to use the engineers coming from our active component,” and active-duty soldiers that had yet to deploy were “preparing with rehearsals and developing movement and load plans,” Marshburn said.

Marshburn had not responded to additional questions about how many active-duty troops remained at Fort Liberty, and what kind of assistance they will be able to provide when deployed, as of Saturday morning.