On Friday, September 27, 2024, after a lot of rain and wind, we recognized that there were a lot of people on local Facebook groups requesting information about their loved ones. No one in Haywood County had phone signal, power was out, wired internet was down. Imagine being in Illinois and not being able to reach your daughter or son, or being in Texas and not being able to reach your grandparent in their late 80s, or knowing your brother needs to charge a medical device and may not have access to a power supply.
I, Erika, was familiar with a platform called Crowd Source Rescue. I used to live on the Gulf Coast and a man created the platform because emergency services were bogged down and government rescue organizations hadn't arrived to provide assistance. The idea was to allow people to list themselves as needing rescue or assistance and a pinpoint would appear on a map. It also allowed volunteers to register to go out and find people.
There was a disconnect initially. The volunteers and people needing rescue were forgetting to take themselves off the map. I still had internet and phone. So, I sat at my kitchen island and started calling people. When I could, I connected them with rescue. When they had been rescued I removed them from the map.
The work was stressful, but it had to be done.
The one case that still sticks out in my memory the most was when I called a number and reached a man in Dallas. He hadn't heard from his loved one, knew the man lived near a creek that was rapidly rising, and wanted someone to check on him. I was familiar with the location and knew the situation was dire. I texted a friend who was on his boat and he made the visit his next priority.
A week after the debacle had ended, I received a call from a phone number I didn't recognize. It was the man who'd needed rescue. He had been trapped in his home by rapidly rising water and ended up confined on a top floor. He had broken his arm in a fall during the debacle. He turned his phone off because he wanted to conserve battery. He thought he was going to die there. My friend was the only possibility of survival. He was emotional as he thanked me for sending help. He'd gotten my phone number from his loved one in Dallas.
While Crowd Source Rescue has been activated for our area for Helene, it takes action and implementation. Our own emergency services are not familiar with the tool. I sent some messages to people who I though might be able to get it implemented, but I didn't hear back. So, I made the form where people could begin inputting details for their loved ones. I don't have the ability to rescue, but we have vehicles that can go places others can't, chainsaws, and a big family. I could at least make contact.
I posted the link to the form online. When I woke on Saturday morning I had 17 requests. That was manageable. What I didn't know was that my post had only just been approved by a group admin. By noon we had over 50 requests.
Since no one here in Haywood County had phone service, my friend Annie volunteered to do the administrative work from her home. Annie went to Tuscola High School here in Haywood County and was my classmate. She's a helper.
We loaded our Starlink satellite internet receiver and a Bluetti battery pack into my car, downloaded our maps for offline use, divided up areas, and started out on the road.
October 1, 2024 We officially completed our wellness checks project because the American Red Cross has now activated their Reunification Teams. We received 132 requests and cleared them all and disabled the form.
