For Peer Support and Mental Health resources for ANY department/agency:

NC State Emergency Management has Peer Support and Mental Health resources in the area being coordinated by NCLEAP. If agencies/departments have a need all you have to do is make the request to your local Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and help will be sent.

If you cannot get the request to your EOC, you can call (866) 731-6901 and ask for the service through Responder Assistance Initiative (RAI) and they will send help.

Please help us spread the word to ALL of the affected agencies/departments or those responding to the affected area.

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To Our Neighbors:

 

There is a massive effort going on to dig our community out that isn’t being seen. Our elected commissioners, possible new commissioners, the county manager and his staff, county emergency management director, assistant emergency management director, other county department heads and their staff, have been housing a host of volunteers who have stepped to help the floor relief efforts. Behind the scenes, all of these individuals are running food intake and distribution, coordinating efforts of sending personnel to evaluate both public and private roads, checking every house in the path of this storm to determine the needs of the occupants, and providing necessary assistance to those who have been displaced.

 

Your Ashe County Rescue Squad has been on active standby since this storm began Friday, as have the local fire departments. You may not have seen the presence of the rescue squad in the same way you’ve seen the fire departments but please rest assured we are here and are working around the clock for our community. We are trained and prepared to respond to swift water rescues, vehicle wrecks, cave-ins, and other rescues requiring immediate emergency attention. We have been utilizing our 8-wheel Argo to assist EMS services on medical calls in areas of the county cars cannot yet access.

 

Your local fire departments are assessing local roads in their home districts. These members know their own districts better than anyone else and are doing an excellent job of assessing the destruction to their own communities. The local fire departments have also been assisting in transporting individuals to shelters, shuttling water and food to individuals who cannot or will not leave their homes, and provided other vital assistance to members of their districts.

 

There have been swift-water specialty teams from Mooresville Fire and Monroe Fire Departments on stand-by during the height of the storm and have provided numerous assists to the Ashe Rescue Squad and the fire departments in getting individuals out of flooded homes and vehicles.

 

It isn’t possible to mention every individual member of a volunteer organization who has come from neighboring counties to assist our efforts. They have and will continue to answer the call whether it be providing 4x4 utility vehicles, welfare checks on our neighbors that haven’t been able to communicate with their loved ones, and clearing downed trees.

 

On Monday night, an elite team of disaster specialists from FEMA arrived in Ashe and are assisting the county officials in the effort to obtain access to more remote parts of the county. This highly trained team of 86 individuals are prepared to remain in Ashe until residents are accounted for and have received food, water, and medicine.

 

We are grateful for our community and every single member who has reached out to the Rescue Squad or their local fire department asking what they can do to help. We have a long road ahead of us but rest assured, our efforts have only begun.

 

                                                                                          With Sincere Gratitude,

 

                                                                                          Robert Poe

                                                                                          Captain, Ashe County Rescue Squad