Wake Forest fire department answers the call 700 miles away to help feed Hurricane Ida victims

One local fire department flew 20 hours in three days to help people in Louisiana after Hurricane Ida.

Posted 9:37 p.m. Sep 9, 2021 — Updated 9:37 p.m. Sep 9, 2021

Rosalia Fodera

, WRAL reporter

WAKE FOREST, N.C. — One local fire department flew 20 hours in three days to help people in Louisiana after Hurricane Ida.

Wake Forest fire crews answered the call for help hundreds of miles away after a devastating storm that left a trail of devastation from the deep south to the northeast.

Firefighters know the call for help can come from places far and wide. In this case, the need to serve took them 700 miles from home.

"It just feels normal and natural when the request comes in and asks for our help, to just get on board and go to work," said Chief Pilot Steve Rhode.

So they boarded a plane instead of a fire truck.

Their destination? Houma, Louisiana. They arrived to help those impacted by Hurricane Ida.

"We met the Cajun Navy down there and dropped off a couple hundred meals at a time to them, which they dispersed out to the public," said Captain Ian Moffatte.

Ida blasted ashore as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S., knocking out power to all of New Orleans, blowing roofs off buildings and reversing the flow of the Mississippi River as it rushed from the Louisiana coast into one of the nation’s most important industrial corridors. The Category 4 storm hit on the same date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier, coming ashore about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of where Category 3 Katrina first struck land.

Through Operation Airdrop, they delivered 1,500 meals to first responders, people in need and the military.

"It was extremely important for us to go down there and help," Moffatte said. "We saw houses and neighborhoods completely destroyed."

"It makes you feel really good that we could go out and actually help someone in need," said Daryl Cash, Chief of Services.

They say even though the heat was unbearable and electricity was scarce, it was the clear that the devastation made this one important mission.

Full restoration of electricity to some of the hardest-hit areas of Louisiana battered to an unprecedented degree by Hurricane Ida could take until the end of the September.

“As uncomfortable as I was, I knew that the people down there, the victims of the storm, were living this day-after-day,“ Rhode said.

But the crew was honored to step outside their comfort zone and serve.

“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” Moffatte said.

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