Beverly-Based MA Task Force 1 Conducts Hurricane Helene Water Rescues In NC

BEVERLY, MA — Forty-five members of the Beverly-based Massachusetts Task Force 1 urban search-and-rescue team are among a dozen units performing water rescue operations helping residents and animals in North Carolina in the wake of the Hurricane Helene devastation.

The unit, made up mostly of emergency services volunteers from throughout the Commonwealth, was deployed early Thursday morning to the northwest area of the state that was hammered with tropical force winds and torrential rains that washed out roads, bridges and isolated many rural communities.

"The team is doing well they continue to perform both water as well as land search and rescue operations in North Carolina," Task Force 1 spokesman Tom Gatzunis told Patch on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday morning, there were 138 deaths attributed to the storm with more than 600 people considered missing across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Florida, where the storm came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane with 140 mph winds.

At least 40 people were killed in the area of Asheville, NC where the Task Force 1 members were deployed, according to the Associated Press.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said more than 900 search-and-rescue personnel were on the ground in North Carolina as of Tuesday delivering food and water to stranded communities, participating in location efforts and helping restore and implement communications efforts either destroyed by the storm or that did not exist in remote areas of the state.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)