# @chapelboronews on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DArNhAlPeNg
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/23771225-chapelboronews-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/ef6b3cd3c8.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-10-03T20:20:08.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Chapelboro.com (@chapelboronews) — https://gondola.cc/chapelboronews

## Caption

As the President of the North Carolina Sheriffs' Association, Chatham County Sheriff Mike Roberson knows when disaster strikes in North Carolina, it’s his responsibility to check in with the local sheriffs. This past weekend, as Hurricane Helene ripped through the western part of the state, he called some of his colleagues to go visit their peers in the affected counties where cell service is down.

“We sent a couple of sheriffs to different places that we thought were pretty bad,” Roberson told 97.9 The Hill on Tuesday, “large, populated areas – to make sure that if we sent [people or things] out, they’d be able to take the help we were sending them.”

Roberson called up former NCSA president and Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood to accompany him to Henderson County. Blackwood said it didn’t take long on the trip out to western counties to begin seeing the signs of devastation and the extent to which first responders were stretched thin.

“When I rode by a farm tractor company and saw mud on the roof of that building, and every unit on the front of the building covered in mud,” Blackwood said on Monday, “I knew this was not the normal type of disaster we respond to. When I saw the look [on the sheriff’s] face of just complete despair, my heart went out to him and, immediately, I thought about what I would [feel] if Chapel Hill and Carrboro were under nine feet of water.”

When the pair asked Henderson County Sheriff Lowell Griffin what he needed in the short term, Griffin candidly responded that he wasn’t sure because of how extensive the need was. His office runs its 911 dispatch operations, which were limited between the lack of service, access, and their backup site being counties away. The result, Blackwood said, was first responders being absolutely worn out from leading an undermanned response for close to 24 hours.

Since then, state and federal resources have begun flowing into the region and rescues are still underway. Head to Chapelboro for recent updates on the Helene relief efforts and links to different donation causes.

#Hurricane #HurricaneHelene #Helene #hurricanerelief #HendersonCountyNC

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## Tags

hurricanehelene, helene, hurricanerelief, hurricane, hendersoncountync

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