?“…I get to go back home, these people don’t have that.” Ray Hodges, Kennedale
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North Carolina?s The Post and Courier published an article on September 20 about rescue efforts when Hurricane Florence zeroed in on Wilmington. In it, reporter, Joseph Cranney mentioned a father and son from Kennedale, Texas who had responded to the disaster. The following is part of that article.? {{more: continue …}}
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But after Florence made landfall at Wrightsville Beach as a Category 1 hurricane, Wilmington and its outlying areas became ground zero for the storm that has killed at least 37, including 27 in North Carolina and 10 in South Carolina.
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First responders rescued hundreds from neighborhoods swallowed by Florence?s record flooding and rainfall. Volunteers from Indiana and Texas ventured into floodwaters with skiffs and airboats. Sheriff?s deputies, police officers and highway troopers worked overtime to clear streets from dangerous power lines and direct traffic at intersections with dead traffic lights.
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Many left families at home to sleep in fire stations on Army-style cots. Others worked around the clock at the New Hanover County emergency operations center, where town clerks kept coffee brewing in the morning and served donated hot meals for dinner.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency deployed an 86-person search and rescue team, based at an empty Wilmington hardware store. The National Guard showed up. More than 30 state troopers came to help with blocked and flooded roadways in the city of roughly 120,000 that became largely marooned from the rest of the state.?The Wrecking Crew ..?
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Ray Hodge, 45, and his son, Dalton Hodge, 22, made the 15-hour drive to Wilmington from Kennedale, Texas, towing his airboat, ?The Wrecking Crew.?
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They rode the flooded neighborhoods of New Bern, North Carolina, on Saturday. They drove Sunday to a mobile home community of hundreds near Long Creek, where the water rose as high as 10 feet. They slept in their pickup. They and other volunteers rescued more than 200, Ray Hodge said.
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?It?s a little bit of my time, but I get to go back to my home,? said Ray Hodge, who also used his airboat for water rescues during Hurricane Harvey in Texas last year. ?These people don?t have that. The only thing I?m doing is getting them out of a bad situation.?
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A crew of more than 30 from the local fire and sheriff?s departments, along with state troopers and FEMA rescue workers, rescued some 150 people overnight Saturday as heavy rains consumed several neighborhoods north of Wilmington.
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The first call came in around 8 p.m. and the water rescues continued until 7 a.m., said Matt Davis, deputy fire chief for New Hanover County Fire Rescue.?Read full article at?Rescuers doing everything they can in Florences aftermath
