Emergency nurse Megan McCormick is back in Raleigh after helping in western North Carolina for more than three days.
“It’s just hard to wrap your head around what a natural disaster can do in such a short time to such a large amount of people,” McCormick said of Hurricane Helene .
McCormick was working at the emergency department at UNC Health Blue Ridge, where they were slammed with patients.
“There was nowhere else to go,” McCormick said. “Several came in without shoes, without I.D., just very challenging, people to help to get resources to. But they were very appreciative of everything. Every volunteer, every warm smile that they saw. They just were very grateful.”
McCormick is just one of hundreds of healthcare workers who left the Triangle to help as soon as Helene left behind a trail of destruction in the western counties on Friday. Many of the workers are still there, according to local healthcare systems.
Lake Lure is one of the many towns in western North Carolina heavily damaged by Hurricane Helene.