Florence Was Volunteer’s 1st Hurricane; She Became Face Of Heroes

Florence was civilian volunteer Amber Hersel’s first hurricane. A full-time mom and part-time photographer, Hersel didn’t expect to become the face of the heroes of Florence, but a photo of her cradling a 7-year-old girl as she carried her from her family’s flooded home in James City was the lead image in multiple news outlets’ coverage of the massive disaster.

The photo, taken by Getty photographer Chip Somodevilla, symbolized both the peril the storm has wrought and the selflessness of people like Hersel, who drove 12 hours from her home in Indiana on Thursday, the day before the storm’s eye smashed into the North Carolina coast, to help out.

At least 18 people have died in the storm, once a terrifying Category 4 storm and that was downgraded to a tropical depression over the weekend. It’s far from over. Swollen rivers as far as 250 miles inland could rise for days, and Florence remains a massive storm system over parts of six Southeastern states.

Volunteers like Hasel pledge to be there “as long as it takes.”

Hersel, 29, is among 20 volunteers who made the long trip to North Carolina with the Civilian Crisis Response Team, an Indiana-based volunteer group that responds to natural disasters like Florence, but also local emergencies and accidents. Established in August 2015, the organization has more than 1,000 members in nine states. Hersel and the other volunteers rescued 75 people in all, including Keiyana Cromartie, her parents and two siblings.

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Hersel told television station KTVU she’s “just your average mom” answering a call to serve. She was part of a team that responded to a small flooding emergency in her own state, but never to an event on the scale of Florence.

'IT'S ALL WORTH IT'

Water started pouring into the Cromartie family’s brick home around midnight Thursday before Florence made landfall. Annazette Riley-Cromartie told CNN the water was rising steadily — it was up to her husband’s chest when he went out to check on cries for help outside. She put the kids and their dog on the top bunk in the attic of the home and called 911.

Overwhelmed first responders referred the call to the Civilian Crisis Response Team, which responded around 4 a.m. to the home in James City, located about 100 miles northeast of Wilmington and just south of New Bern, two of the cities hardest hit by flooding.

“It takes a special person to leave their own home and their own family to come all this way to help us,” Riley-Cromartie told CNN.

The 7-year-old Hersel was pictured carrying was “a little nervous,” she told television station KTVU, but also “very brave.” She didn’t cry.

“As you see the families that you’re helping,” Hersel told CNN, “you know it’s all worth it.”

THE WORLD WON'T PASS THEM BY

Also showing up from out of state were volunteers with the Louisiana Cajun Navy, a civilian group founded after Hurricane Katrina and deployed last year during Hurricane Harvey, where they assisted in about 30,000 high-water rescues.

The volunteers’ mission goes to the heart of what Florence’s victims need most: “From the under privileged, the homeless, and all veterans in this country, we won't stand by and watch another person suffer, struggle, and fight for their lives, while the world passes by.”

Retired Marine named Jason Weinmann, 47, picked up a military transport vehicle about a decade ago and rescued 10 people from a flooded neighborhood in New Bern.

“That’s why I got this thing,” Weinmann told CNN. “To use in times like this.”

HOSPITALITY ABOUNDS

In other cases, the rescue was more subtle — a dry bed, a hot meal and a clean shower. Scores of people opened their homes to some of the more than 1 million people who had been asked to flee theirs as the monster storm crawled along the coasts of the Carolinas and Virginia.

Robert Riker, of Waynesville, North Carolina, and his family know the logistical and financial struggle displaced families face. They’ve fled hurricanes before, including Matthew, when they lived in Jacksonville.

“And we know the cost of staying in a hotel and having to eat out can quickly add up at a time when anxiety, fear and uncertainty is high,” the father of three told CNN. “We just want to offer some relief to someone who has greater worries going on in their life than I do. We're all in this life together. And we only have each other to rely on.”

The offers of hospitality are coming from outside the area affected by the storm, too.

Leah Van Buren Bolton opened her Quantum Leap Trampoline Sports Arena near her home in Kingsport, Tennessee, to Hurricane Irma evacuees last year and did the same this year for people and pets forced out their homes by Florence.

“We’re human and people need help,” she told CNN. “When people need help, you help them.”

Former Florida resident Jim Gregory also knows what those fleeing Florence are going through as they try to get ahead of the danger. He opened his hostel and campground on 2.5 acres next to the Appalachian Trail and Watauga Lake outside of Hampton, Tennessee, telling CNN: “If I can even help one person or family to be safe during this dangerous storm, I will.”

Photos: Volunteer Amber Hersel from the Civilian Crisis Response Team helps rescue 7-year-old Keiyana Cromartie and her family from their flooded home in James City, North Carolina. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)