As people continue to suffer throughout North Carolina, east Tennessee and South Carolina from Hurricane Helene, a Marion County man, with assistance from other locals, has been doing his part to help by flying in supplies on his own plane.
James Cagle, who owns a Piper Lance airplane, was able to transport nearly 3,000 pounds worth of supplies to people in need in east Tennessee. The airline pilot initially flew into a regional airport near Charlotte, N.C., where a large base of operations is set up and run 100% by civilians.
He said it started because he was listening to an aviation podcast that said pilots were needed for Operation Airdrop, and he thought to himself, “I have this airplane that isn’t doing anything, and maybe I can do something.”
After arriving at the regional airport, Cagle and other volunteer pilots would report what aircraft they had and how much weight it could hold. Volunteers then loaded up their planes and told them where to fly it to reach people who were completely cut off by the destruction of roads and bridges in their area.
At a base of operations near Charlotte, N.C., volunteers sort through and load supplies onto planes to be delivered to hard to reach areas affected by Hurricane Helene.
Cagle made several runs last week to Mountain City, Tenn., which is near the North Carolina border. He said that region was pretty tricky to get in and out of because of how mountainous it is, and it was completely devastated as one side of a mountain completely collapsed.
While he was there, Mountain City locals informed him of the supplies they truly needed. A day before Cagle reached out to Clint McMurry, Wanda Brown, who is McMurry’s mother, was trying to figure out what to do with the last chunk of her tithe money. After discussing it with her son, she decided to sleep on her options on McMurry’s advice. The next day when McMurry got the call from Cagle needing help with the supplies, Brown knew this was the perfect cause to give to.
With the help of McMurry and Brown, along with several other Marion Countians, Cagle’s plane was loaded up and he returned to Mountain City this week.
“There are a lot of pilots from all over the country who were able to come in and make this happen. It was wonderful to see all those folks helping,” Cagle said.
The experienced pilot said he reviewed the footage from his approach into Johnson County where Mountain City is, and there was widespread destruction. While he didn’t fly into many of the other areas affected by the storm, he said he could only imagine how bad the damage truly is.
The runway James Cagle landed on for his trips was completely covered in flood water, mud and debris before it was cleared.
“It was kind of shocking,” he said of reviewing the footage. “Once you get to a couple thousand feet, it’s not as obvious as it is when you start descending lower. But there are a lot of hidden areas that you can’t see that are devastated.”
Cagle said he was unsure what he was going to do once he retires as a pilot, but now that he knows what he can do to help in times of need, he knows exactly what his future holds. He added more help is still needed for the victims of Hurricane Helene, and any pilot has the opportunity to lend their expertise.
