KILLEEN, Texas — Texas A&M Task Force 1 (TX-TF1) has been deployed since Sept. 24 to the hardest hit areas following Hurricane Helene's landfall and movement through multiple states.
The dozens of trained search and rescue specialists were first deployed to Florida, but soon after were reassigned and sent to Yancey County, North Carolina. Teams are performing wide area searches, damage assessments and helping deliver necessary aid to those in the area.
One of the crew members deployed with TX-TF1 is Flip Bannister, a technical search specialist. Bannister is also a battalion chief with the Killeen Fire Department.
"This event is probably gonna be one of the worst things we'll see maybe in our careers," Bannister explained about the damage he has seen since being deployed.
Bannister is currently serving in the role of search manager while TX-TF1 is in North Carolina. He said with the scope of the damage, he isn't sure when he and others will be able to return to their local jobs, but he said they'll go where the need is and they'll stay for as long as needed.
"We brought an 80-person team from Texas alone and everybody's working sun up, sun down every day trying to make something better in somebody else's life out here while they're doing these missions," Bannister said. "We're not just putting checks in check boxes and moving along. We're here for the greater good. Back home we always say it's Texas helping Texan, but now we're visiting our brothers and sisters in our neighboring states and we're trying to help them, help their folks."
Bannister said when they start any deployment, the team typically is in a very hasty rescue mode and once every inch of the county is covered, they'll transition to primary searches. Primary searches will lead into secondary searches where teams will start going through structures, rubble piles, etc.
"We're doing our best to take account of what's going on to try to locate the number of missing people and start tracking down, backtracking those and allocating resources to them as we can," Bannister said. "We're trying to manage it from the top down and put the right resources in the right places as we're doing this."
Bannister wants Central Texans to have a better understanding of what the storm victims are dealing with when it comes to the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. He said roadways, thoroughfares and bridges have been completely washed out.
"There's no way to get to some of these people and we've been flown into different areas to do different work," Bannister said. "Some of them it took four or five days to get to them. We still have crews out cutting pathways to get up the mountainsides to try to find those folks."
Bannister said one challenge they've experienced in the deployment is deep sand covering streets after the storm moved through. In some areas the sand was as deep as four or five feet.
Bannister also said the connectivity is spotty, despite Starlinks being donated for the area. There is no running water or electricity, unless it's running on generators. Most importantly, there are airdrops running through North Carolina to bring necessary resources.
TX-TF1 is working alongside local agencies in North Carolina, and also many other task forces from other states. Bannister said he is proud to be representing the Lone Star State by serving those in need.
"When they see that Texas flag that everyone's wearing on their shoulder and walking around, everybody's very happy to have Texas here," Bannister said. "We've been welcomed tremendously by the folks. We're using a lot of the fire stations as operating bases as we're working in the area and we're getting to talk to the folks as they're coming in and seeing them."