I currently live in Vermont with my wife, Naomi. We very recently visited Western North Carolina, staying in Burnsville while Naomi took a course at the Penland School of Craft. During our time there, parts of our home state experienced significant flooding, although we were among the lucky who escaped serious damage.
Before I ever met Naomi, in the 1980s and 1990s, and then later, after we were together, I and we became active with the Outing Club of the not far away University of Massachusetts at Amherst. During a number of March spring breaks, we visited your region for the purpose of recreational whitewater canoeing. We had some great days paddling rivers like the Nantahala and the French Broad and an especially memorable one on the North Carolina section of the Nolichucky.
I mention all this because I read that Vermont has a flood event mutual aid agreement with four other states, one of which is North Carolina. Apparently as part of this agreement, North Carolina sent several swift-water rescue teams to help out aiding and saving people on the swollen streams in Vermont.
We and other people of our state are so very thankful for the help given us by North Carolina. We can appreciate just how skilled your swift-water rescue teams must be, since the above rivers and others are in your backyards.
I have no idea how to get our deep appreciation to the people of the North Carolina rescue teams, but hopefully, word will be passed on to them. “Mutual aid,” of course, means that when necessary, the favor will be returned.
— Michael Bosworth
Brattleboro, Vt.
Asheville City decided to name 5 out of the 16 that represented Buncombe County in the rescue: Isaac McCurry, Scott Hare, JM Keupp, James Kodaras, and Charles Heard. The press release could have gone further and mentioned all the names.
https://www.ashevillenc.gov/news/city-of-asheville-firefighters-lend-a-much-needed-hand-in-vermont/
“Three Mountain Roofing was dealt a double blow after its offices in Jeffersonville flooded and employees housed in Cambridge village had to be evacuated by rescue teams from Buncombe County, North Carolina, early Tuesday morning as their home took on water.”
https://www.vtcng.com/news_and_citizen/news/local_news/cambridge-crawls-out-from-flood-damage/article_1455bb42-2731-11ee-95c6-9f5805ad4a02.html
2020 | North Carolina Taskforce 2
https://www.facebook.com/buncombeGov/posts/behind-the-scenes-north-carolina-urban-search-and-rescue-task-force-2-ncusar-tf2/10163392388260705/?locale=sw_KE
Vermont has helped in North Carolina’s disasters
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/2023/07/14/nc-swiftwater-search-and-rescue-in-vermont-helping-flood-ravaged-areas