As many of you know, I am on a Search & Rescue team here in Eastern NC. I'm a K9 handler with two certified HRD (cadaver) dogs. Our team has around 12 certified HRD dogs and around 8 or so certified live find dogs. Our team has not yet been activated by NC Emergency Management. We've been told that we're on standby. NCEM knows what assets we have and will call us when we are needed.

This disaster has totally devastated many of the small mountain communities and unfortunately, there are still hundreds of people who are missing. This ongoing tragedy is likely to continue for many months and some of the towns will not be restored for years. The death count is sure to continue to climb based simply on the number of people still unaccounted for.

They are still clearing and making repairs to the roads to get access to the small communities that are cut off. Many of those are still only accessible by air. They're using the available helicopters to get the injured out and supplies like gasoline, generators, food, water and medicine, in to the survivors. Many of the first teams on site were local NC, VA, SC, TN volunteer SAR teams & FEMA task force teams, not to be confused with the FEMA agency that showed up 7 days later. With the damage, and lack of accessibility, these teams were working long hours in extremely hard conditions to clear the main areas closer to the big highways and towns. Many of those teams are now pulling out due to fatigue and burn-out. They were told to go home, rest and get ready to deploy to Florida for the aftermath of Milton. Especially the FEMA task force teams which are regional teams. One of our local Raleigh teams was up there 10 days working 16 hr days. They came home exhausted two days ago.

We're expecting to be activated by NCEM in the future, to take our dogs and go into the back woods communities to search, as they are still working on getting those roads cleared, and temporary repairs to make the roads passable by vehicle. This will certainly help make our job a bit easier. Military personnel (1000+) were called in from all of the bases in NC as well as the helicopters from the bases that had them. Since the priority was getting the people supplied, and helicopter was the only way in to the back country, the choppers were not being used to ferry search dogs in and out. The deceased are not going anywhere and they will be there until we can get in with the K9s. The important thing is keeping the survivors alive.

Continue to pray or send good vibrations to this effort. The people in the disaster need it and so do the volunteers who are there to help.

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