They didnt just care for our veterans; they provided exceptional service!
That service extended deep into the mountains.
When the floodwaters hit, the Emergency Department never closed.
Western North Carolina VA Health Care System Outreach Team (L-R): Nurse Matthew Bain, driver Garth Massie, and nurse Sherrie Byrd.Credit:Jay Price / WUNC / American Homefront Project
Since the hurricane, each team has conducted two to four visits daily inhard-hit communities.
Price accompanied nurses Matthew Bain and Sherrie Byrd, along with driver Garth Massie.
Some of our staff lost family members.
VA nurse Joseph R. Healy serving at a local shelter in Asheville, NC.Credit:Western North Carolina VA Health Care System
Some people have lost homes.
Some people lost nothing.
Just like western North Carolina, it’s a gamut of everything.
Veteran Donald Harris of Fairview, NC, showing the outreach team a video of the Black Hawk helicopter that airlifted him out following the hurricane.Credit:Jay Price / WUNC / American Homefront Project
Bain and his family were without power for 15 days.
Still, the VA nurses showed up day after day.
He had no medicines…no power, no electricity.
Evacuee at local shelter following Hurricane Helene.Credit:Western North Carolina VA Health Care System
So, he was pretty much just at our whim with what we had that we could give him.
Stewarts home flooded in the storm, but was salvageableunlike the homes of many of his neighbors.
The veteran only recently returned home, and the VA has been working to bring him a new wheelchair.
Not just the veterans, but a bunch of isolated people, he said.
One takeaway really stands out to Price: thecommunityof it all.
The level of community and cooperationpeople just pitching in, Price said.
I mean official, unofficial, all of it.
Doing whatever needs to be done…They areheartypeople up there.
His neighbors looked out for him, Price shared.
They immediately thought, We better check on him, and they made the slog up through a mudslide.
They all look out for each other.
The same is true of our VA community.
Learn more about The American Homefront Project and veteran stories across the Southhere.
