Best then in , North Carolina, an index card could save a life.
Blue-lined, 3-by-5-inch documents sit in a network on a plastic folding table inside , Hickory Regional Airport, listing location and what those stranded in Hurricane Helene’s fallout needed:
Baby solution.
Insulin.
Help.
A sparse cluster of aircraft inside the two-room aircraft hand out three or four cards at once, head to their helicopters, and take a westbound flight. Energy is expensive. If they end up unable to get on the rickety ground in the mangled , Appalachian Mountains, they need more tickets, more possibilities before turning again. Half through their second day of operations, the organizers realized this.
But , Andy Petree, a retired , NASCAR , researcher for , ESPN, takes only one passport at , 5: 56 p. m. Monday. The sun may set in about two days. This is his sixth and final journey of the day. His first was 12 days ago, when he flew his son out of their home,  , Hendersonville, and dropped him at Petree ‘s , Lake Norman , house, one with its own runway, near , Charlotte.
For his next to next trip, Petree flew out to , Black Mountain, where he rescued a family of three and their dogs.
Then, Petree loads Pampers diapers, Similac infant formula, his sister’s PB&, J sandwiches and a , Charlotte Observer , writer into his personal aircraft and lifts off from the landing remove that’s about three football fields much.
The 66-year-old is one of 37 pilots who has donated their private aviation to Operation Airdrop, a non-profit that provides important items to volunteer aircraft after disasters.
In , Asheville,  , Swannanoa,  , Lake Lure,  , Marshall, and some parts of western , North Carolina, individuals are only available by heat. Highways, shredded by the storms, have turned into thin mud paths, riverbeds or cliffs into the peach, dark water beneath.
Hickory, a , North Carolina , area of about 44, 000 known as a decor manufacturing investment of , the United States, is about an hours drive from , Charlotte,  , Asheville , and , Boone. That’s about 30 days in Petree’s aircraft.
We head to , Lake Lure , in his Robinson 44 Raven 2— a four-person plane he bought to get from his , Hendersonville , house in western , North Carolina , to the , NASCAR , tracks in the middle of the position, near to , Concord , and the , Lake Norman , home where his son then sits with 200 pounds of supplies.
Three days ago, as Helene passed over his household state Friday, Petree was in Port Canaveral,  , Florida, postponing plans to travel from where he and his family were about to get onto a cruise ship.
He had to support, he said.
The rest of the volunteers, some dropping items and clothing and airlifting people away, have similar tales. Some wear matching dark pants, black shoes, and black shirts with the words” Academy of Aviation,” others wear military camouflage, and others have neck tattoos on their clothes and T-shirts.
Hodgepodge aircraft help Helene’s patients
Pockets of death relaxation between , Hickory , and the , Appalachian Mountains. Some places appear to be unoccupied or at least restore, with outdoor furnishings still present. Then there is a stain of fallen trees that may pass away before their leaves this time turn into a rainbow of colors.
Then a valley. Therefore a river. Then, the entire city fell apart.
” That hurricane generally picked up the entire Gulf of , Mexico , and dropped it right it”, Petree says, pointing to the solid layer of trees, buildings, tents and sympathizing sitting where , Chimney Rock , used to be.
I tell him this summer, on a trip back to , Charlotte , from , Topton, a town further out west that escaped total ruin Friday, I considered stopping at the quaint lake town. I did n’t.
” Now you’ll never see it”, he says.
Those with homes still intact wo n’t be able to get to them, he says. Those who have their homes and belongings taken away wo n’t see it rebuilt. Those dead in the ruin wo n’t be found for a few more days, months, maybe years, he says.
As of Monday, officials said more than 100 Americans had died in the 10 states hit by Helene. By Tuesday afternoon, there were 57 people confirmed dead from the storm in just , Buncombe County , in , North Carolina, according to Sheriff , Quentin Miller. Hundreds are still missing.
Petree, who was in the rubble talking to people earlier Monday, said the people there are just awestruck. The devastation is unimaginable. And for those who do n’t have to imagine — those who heard the freight-train-sounding rush of water and woke up to their neighbor’s homes in the water — it’s incomprehensible.
At , 6: 45 p. m., after circling above the coordinates listed on Petree’s index card, finding no place to land and seeing no people waving us down, we land on a bridge next to , Bat Cave Volunteer Fire Department , between the demolished , Chimney Rock , and , Gerton, the next unincorporated community west. Two orange Xs mark the makeshift landing pad. The next bridge over is marked with black, capitalized words:  , DO NOT LAND.
One bleary-eyed volunteer firefighter with muddy camo boots and a gun in his waistband is present, but the people who requested diapers and baby food are n’t. He’s with a few others.
Their eyes are all the same. Wide open, glazed, processing the devastating storm that struck their town, which some had once referred to as a” climate have n” due to its close proximity to the coast and relatively high elevation.
” Everyone is gone”, says Marie O’Neill, a butterfly-booted woman who lives on a slope above the fire department. ” The people, the animals”.
We do n’t have time to stay long.
She waves as we take off, the sun’s setting cloud protected by remnants of the storm that has ravaged the state.
We fly back over the ruin and land back in , Hickory , at , 7: 27 p. m.  , Inside one of the airport’s rooms, 50 volunteers — pilots, runway golf cart drivers, regular people — eat pizza and hot dogs when a director comes in.
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s niece is out there, somewhere. She inquires about who has the authorization to fly at night. One person is. Two people are needed.
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