OUTER BANKS, N.C. — The doors of Outer Banks Boil Company opened and closed all day Tuesday as Outer Banks residents came in with their hands full of supplies. At Dare County Regional Airport in Manteo, Matt Khouri, alongside friends and OBX Aviation crews, loaded countless supplies into a plane to be taken to the communities impacted by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina.
"When you see these areas impacted by these storms like that, it's tough to again, put into words the devastation and the pain and the things that these folks are going through in these areas that are impacted, and it's such a wide swath of areas and communities that were hit so darn hard by by mother nature, unfortunately," said Matt Khouri, the founder of Outer Banks Boil Company and who is part of the team helping to coordinate drop-offs via air through Operation Airdrop.
The Outer Banks is no stranger to major hurricanes, but Helene's impact was minimal this time, with the majority of the damage being inland on the western parts of North Carolina. The community hasn't forgotten the countless times that North Carolinian's have stepped up to help in their times of need.
Watch: Local rescue teams and organizations come together to provide Helene relief
“We're all part of this beautiful state and the mountains to the beach, and it's just, it's moving to see it all come together this way," said Khouri.
Thousands of items will now be flown to Concord, where the staging area is for the supplies to get to the impacted communities. With all of the items being donated by the Outer Banks community.
"Just the way the community has come together, it's tough to put into words," said Khouri.
Not only has the OBX community stepped up via donations and supplies, Dare and Currituck County have also sent emergency responders to help out in the aftermath of the storm.
Watch: Legitimate organizations you can donate to for Hurricane Helene relief
“I have a list, you know, a mile long, of people who want to go and help because they know what it's like to suffer those kinds of losses and to be inundated with emergency calls and just need some extra hands to help out," said Jennie Collins, chief of Dare EMS and MedFlight.
The Dare County EMS crew that was sent consists of paramedic and advanced EMT personnel, they are on a four to six day deployment in Rutherford County for now and will be rotating crews as needed. They will deploy to other impacted areas if they are requested.
“We are also helping send another person with the Currituck medical ambulance bus group to help them with their staffing. That medical ambulance bus is a regional asset and has been used in evacuation of nursing homes and hospitals and things like that. So we're able to help in a couple of different ways, but we do want to rotate our crews around one because to the effects of fatigue and being in that kind of a situation for several days, and allow other people the experience of what it is to go out and help other agencies and areas that you're not familiar with. Some of those agencies are experiencing two to three times the number amount of emergency calls for their existing staff, that's a huge workload on them when they're trying to worry about their families and their friends that have had losses also suffered," said Collins.
Watch: VB EMS crews head to Washington County to assist with Hurricane Helene impacts
One thing is clear, the Outer Banks community will be here to support the impacted communities as long as that's needed.
"As long as we have the pilots, the planes, the ability to fly them in, we're certainly going to do exactly that. Whenever we kind of hit that, that capability threshold, we'll shift focus, and we'll find folks that are taking taking stuff out via trailer and truck and what have you," said Khouri.
For more information on how any Outer Banks residents can donate or get involved, head to Outer Banks Boil Company's Facebook here or Our Epic Project's website here.
Countless organizations in the Outer Banks have stepped up to help in this time of need and some include: Outer Banks Boil Company, Our Epic Project, OBX Aviation, OBX Jeepers, Outer Banks Community Fund and many more.
