SWANNANOA, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Over the last few weeks, helicopters have been a common sight over the Blue Ridge Mountains. The people inside them are anything but.
Adam Smith is the founder of new nonprofit organization Savage Freedoms Relief Operations, or Savage Ops. The group has been independently working to aid the Western North Carolina community in the month since Hurricane Helene brought disaster to the region.
“This has been an organically developed group of volunteers that has really just come together in the last four weeks,” said Smith. “It really all came about because of my desire to rescue my daughter and her mom from Highway 9. They live right next door to me and my fiancée and this whole thing started by asking for help so I could fly a helicopter and get them out.”
Smith was in Texas for a business conference on the Thursday night before the storm landed. Like many others with family and loved ones in the W.N.C., on Friday morning, Smith noticed that his calls and text messages weren’t going through.
However, Smith managed to receive a message, a text from his former brother-in-law. He told Smith that the conditions were “really, really bad,” and worse, he was unable to check on Smith’s daughter and her mom.
Rather than sitting by until word came to him, Smith decided to drive 18 hours from Austin, T.X. to Black Mountain, N.C., arriving around 3 a.m.
On the drive, Smith sent out a Facebook message.
“Around 12 p.m. or so, I sent a message out to all my friends and did a Facebook post that said if anybody has a helicopter or has a friend of a friend with a helicopter, can you please put them in touch with me? I need help,” Smith said. “Friday night, at about 9 or 10 p.m., we made contact with a guy named Aaron Rudolph out of Burlington, North Carolina.”
Rudolph was a private pilot and owned his own helicopter. He landed his helicopter behind the Harley-Davidson in Swannanoa, N.C., 20 Patton Cove Road. Smith was able to rescue his family. The moment of rescue, he said, was life-changing.
“I would say it’s probably the number one most meaningful thing I think I’ve ever experienced in my life. I assumed that they were dead,” Smith said. “Their house was only 34 yards from the river, and after seeing the level of destruction, I just didn’t see how it was possible for anybody or any of the houses in the area to make it through.”
Yet because of Smith and Rudolph, Smith’s family did make it through.
“When we touched down, and I saw her little flower dress, barefoot, running in the field,” Smith chuckled, choking up. “I realized that God had a bigger purpose for me and I had a job to do.”
That job was to found Savage Ops, which has flown hundreds of missions in the area since Helene struck. Pilots included volunteers of all sorts, but especially military veterans, who have found their own purpose in the task, Smith said.
“I’ve had veterans come to me as they were leaving from dedicating their time on the ground, saying ‘You know, I needed this,'” Smith said. “‘I needed to redefine purpose and I needed to reconnect with being of service.'”
The missions have been impactful for everyone.
“I have not seen one person who has either come through here and volunteered with us or families that we’ve interacted with who have not had a profound and overwhelming spiritual experience,” Smith said.
In the future, Savage Ops plans to expand beyond W.N.C.
While Helene was what got the organization started, Smith is determined to go wherever they’re needed next.
For more information about Savage Ops, check out their website, www.savagefreedoms.com, or follow their Facebook page.