The welcoming mountains of Western North Carolina was where Robert Arndt grew up. And after the deadly Hurricane Helene pummeled the area, he knew he had to do something, anything, to help.
“Nanny’s house is completely destroyed,” Arndt said last week. His great-grandmother’s house was in Clyde, halfway between his hometown of Sylva and Asheville. She’s safe and staying with family in Sylva nearly an hour west of Asheville. “A house is replaceable. A life isn’t,” Arndt said.
He’s among 1,300 soldiers with the 20th Engineer Brigade mobilized to the mountains for recovery relief. The brigade includes soldiers from Fort Liberty (formerly Bragg), where Ardnt is based, as well as Fort Meade in Maryland and Fort Campbell in Kentucky.
The job is personal to the 22-year-old, whose family also lives in towns like Canton and Waynesville, all hammered by the storm and within the 27 counties designated as major disaster areas .
“They need more hands, more workers, more engineers to help clear the roads or build them, or help get supplies to people who can’t get out of their houses,” Arndt said.