Charleston Police Department share the devastation they saw aiding North Carolina communities after Hurricane Helene

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the Charleston Police Department sent teams up to aid the Bat Cave community in Western North Carolina.

When Charleston Police got the call to help people impacted by Helene in Western North Carolina, they had a volunteer team of officers assembled in minutes.

Even though they train for scenarios like this, police captain Jason Bruder said roads, houses and even highways were completely gone.

“In our line of work, we kind of study and prepare for these things we listen to debriefs and after actions but being there in person is completely different the devastation and the amount of damage done roads that were gone highways that weren’t there anymore those types of things to see it in person is just completely different,” said Jason Bruder, the Captain of the Charleston Police Department.

They worked to help the community in any way they could who were grateful for their presence.

“We were on the humanitarian side like ‘hey do you need a generator brought to you’, ‘have you been back to your house, no I need a ride up’ there also providing that presence of we’re here and we can help with whatever needs to be done,” said Captain Bruder.

The team focused on clearing the roads so by the time they finished after almost two weeks they were able to get power back to the entire bottom of the mountain. Captain Bruder said his biggest takeaway was how people put everything aside to help one another.

“The thing that truly amazed me down there and I’ll be telling this story for the rest of my life is all of the logistics, the resources being managed from day 1 to day 13, 14 when we left was being managed by a volunteer fire chief and his volunteer firefighter department it was all volunteers from the community truly taking care of one another,” said Captain Bruder.

Captain Bruder said the experience helped them learn what to do in Charleston in the event of a natural disaster.

“Our officers seeing that firsthand allows them to bring that message back for ourselves and our communities for if something that major were to happen here in Charleston,” said Captain Bruder.