North Carolina National Guard Soldiers of C Company 1-120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Armor Brigade Combat Team out of Elizabeth Town N.C. transport evacuees fleeing Hurricane Florence in New Bern NC.
When Hurricanes Florence and Michael struck the southeast coast of the United States late in the summer of 2018, Army National Guard Soldiers, civilian first responders and everyday residents banded together to offer shelter, food and aid to those most impacted by the storms’ devastation.
Over 6,600 National Guard members, sent from at least 28 States, were sent to support the States of North and South Carolina in recovery from Hurricane Florence. That type of unity is what South Carolina’s Adjutant General MG Robert Livingston described as the most effective tool in alleviating the destruction of hurricanes. “Everything is unified,” he said.
At a quarter after seven o’clock in the morning on Sept. 14, 2018, the eye of Hurricane Florence made landfall on the coast of North Carolina, near Wrightsville Beach. The storm lingered. It crept over the landscape at just 6 miles-per-hour (mph), but with maximum sustained winds estimated at 90 mph – making it a slow-moving, yet deadly, Category 1 Hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Thirteen States were unified in sending service members to join the more than 3,000 North Carolina National Guard members activated in response to the massive storm. Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wisconsin National Guards sent Soldiers and Airmen to support North Carolina’s recovery effort. Air support vehicles included CH-47 Chinooks sent by five States; Black Hawk helicopters sent by 11 States; additional helicopters sent by the U.S. Coast Guard and other rotary wing aircraft sent by the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.
