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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley, and I'm here with my co-host Georgia Howe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for joining us, John.
--:-- John Bickley: Today, we're talking about a remarkable story of civilian-led initiative in the wake of Hurricane Helene. A group of civilians mounted an unprecedented helicopter rescue mission that ended up eclipsing government efforts in the region.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right, John. And we're joined today by Eric Robertson, co-founder of Operation Hilo, the organization behind this incredible effort.
--:-- Eric Robertson: Thanks for having me on, guys.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So, Eric, tell us about this mission. How did it come about?
--:-- Eric Robertson: Well, initially, after Hurricane Helene, we were probably two hours east of the area. We heard about the devastation coming out of the mountains. So a friend of ours, Doug Jackson from Operation Airdrop, who uses fixed-wing airplanes to respond to natural disasters, he called up and said, "Hey, how can we help?" So they came here to North Carolina. We all kind of met as a group and determined that due to the area of operation, airplanes were not going to be effective for that mission.
--:-- John Bickley: That's fascinating. So, you and your team put out a call for helicopters to aid in the rescue efforts.
--:-- Eric Robertson: That's right. We put the call out to a bunch of friends asking for helicopters to where we could go into the challenging LZs, drop off aid, pick up people, do search and rescue, that type thing. So that was Sunday after the storm. Monday morning, we started flying aid missions and, again, search and rescue, wellness checks.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Wow, I've heard that you had an incredible response from pilots across the country. Can you tell us more about that?
--:-- Eric Robertson: Yeah, so we had over 100 helicopters. We started running missions Monday morning, getting aid and medicine, doing well checks, and even egg deliveries. It was an eclectic mix of pilots – people who use their helicopters on their ranch to herd cattle, prior military guys, guys who just had their helicopter for fun.
--:-- John Bickley: That's amazing. And I've heard that you didn't have a single safety incident during the entire mission.
--:-- Eric Robertson: That's right. We didn't have a single safety incident at all with over 4,000 missions that we ran. So they were great aviators that answered the call.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, tell us about some of the really notable rescues you made during the mission.
--:-- Eric Robertson: So initially, we had to forge new landing zones. We would take prior military, also some military special forces guys, 82nd guys that were simply there on leave volunteering. We would drop them in, and they would forge landing zones for us. And they would go out and kind of scout the area. So once we had that done, we understood where the aid needed to go.
--:-- John Bickley: That must have been incredibly challenging.
--:-- Eric Robertson: Yeah, it was. But we had a great team, and we were able to make it work. We would land directly on someone's property if we needed to. If we got a call into the call center of somebody looking for Aunt Nancy and hadn't talked to Aunt Nancy in seven days, they would give us her address. We would turn it into coordinates that we could hand our pilots. We would scout the landing zone, make sure it was accessible, drop in, make sure Aunt Nancy was okay, and get her some food and relief.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Wow, that's incredible. And I've heard that there was one particular rescue that really stood out to you.
--:-- Eric Robertson: Yeah, there was an elderly couple sitting in front of a store in Burnsville. The water was up past the second level of that store. They were standing guard because their grandson was still stuck in the rafters. He had obviously passed away, but they were standing guard, saying they wouldn't leave until he left.
--:-- John Bickley: That's just heartbreaking.
--:-- Eric Robertson: Yeah, it was a tough situation, but we were able to provide some support and help them through it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, I've heard that you're not just providing aid and rescue services, but also temporary housing for people who have lost everything.
--:-- Eric Robertson: That's right. We immediately pivoted after the helicopter mission kind of wound down. We knew the devastation was still there, and people were homeless. We started buying and distributing campers to the people as temporary shelter. And to date, we have delivered 162 campers to 162 families.
--:-- John Bickley: That's amazing. And I've heard that you're also providing propane for the campers to keep people warm.
--:-- Eric Robertson: Yeah, we've made a deal locally with Blossomans, a propane distributor in the area, to where they can go to Blossomans, get propane for their camper at no cost to them.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's incredible. And I've heard that you're also planning to provide building materials for people to rebuild their homes.
--:-- Eric Robertson: That's right. We're now pivoting again, seeing what's next. And our next evolution is to start supplying building materials to where we can be a part of the long-term permanent build-back effort.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, Eric, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing this incredible story.
--:-- Eric Robertson: Thanks for having me, guys.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And for our listeners, if you'd like to support Operation Hilo's efforts, you can visit their website at operationhelo.org and donate.
--:-- John Bickley: And don't forget to check out Good Ranchers for your holiday meat needs. Visit GoodRanchers.com and use code WIRE today.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And finally, if you're a business owner looking to future-proof your operations, check out NetSuite by Oracle. Visit netsuite.com slash morningwire to learn more.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for joining us on this special edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And we'll be back with more news and analysis tomorrow.
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