Inside Operation Airdrop’s 300K-Pound Delivery to Helene Survivors – Charlotte Magazine

By the time Operation Airdrop finished its work in the air this week, volunteers in airplanes had taken off 554 times from Concord-Padgett Regional Airport and delivered 317,677 pounds of supplies to people who, in many cases, had no other way to get them. They loaded up for more than 200 helicopter flights, too, accounting for about 22,000 pounds—water, food, diapers, cleaning and medical supplies. Every bit of it was needed.

Photo by Amy Stewart.

Operation Airdrop is a Texas-based nonprofit that specializes in providing rapid relief to communities after natural disasters; it was founded after Hurricane Harvey struck the Texas and Louisiana coasts in 2017, and it’s since flown relief missions after hurricanes Florence, Irma, and Michael, among others. Its work in the mountains of western North Carolina and East Tennessee after Helene was crucial in part because of topography: Many communities are in mountain hollers and deep-woods enclaves that are barely accessible even in the best of times. The extraordinary flooding from Helene washed out or blocked hundreds of roads in the region, which made delivery by air a matter of urgency.

Photo by Amy Stewart.

So the organization got to work. People from throughout the Charlotte region dropped their donations off at the Walmart on Thunder Road N.W. in Concord, and Operation Airdrop moved them by truck to the nearby airport. There, volunteers sorted, weighed, and organized the goods in a hangar before loading onto the planes and helicopters. The organization closed the Walmart drop-off point at 5 p.m. Thursday, but that day alone reflected the extent of the effort: 420 volunteers on the ground, 189 flights, 101,137 pounds delivered.

Volunteer John Giordano of Concord. Photo by Amy Stewart.

Photo by Amy Stewart.

Photo by Amy Stewart.

As of Friday, Operation Airdrop had shifted its focus to “ground operations in tandem with ongoing search and rescue efforts,” according to its website. The organization asks that any further donations go to the sites listed at the bottom of this page. Note the list underneath it that outlines the items still needed most, along with a continuing need for volunteers.

On a warm afternoon, an exhausted Logan Barr rests on cardboard in the Walmart parking lot. The Walmart, near the airport, was the main drop-off point for supplies. Photo by Amy Stewart.

One of the pilots: Chris James of Mooresville, retired from American Airlines, now bound for Ashe County. Photo by Amy Stewart.

Photo by Amy Stewart.

Photo by Amy Stewart.

Photo by Amy Stewart.

Photo by Amy Stewart.

Photo by Amy Stewart.

Photo by Amy Stewart.

Photo by Amy Stewart.

Photo by Amy Stewart.