NC honors workers who got cars off I-40 as it washed away after Helene

More than a hundred cars and trucks were trapped on Interstate 40 as the flooded Pigeon River began devouring the highway last fall.

Swollen from the remnants of Hurricane Helene, the river swept away trees, guardrails and pavement, as more than a mile of the eastbound lanes disappeared on the North Carolina side of the Tennessee state line.

But none of the cars or trucks fell into the river.

Several people — transportation workers and troopers from both states, a volunteer fire chief and some of the stranded motorists — followed their instinct and training to carefully guide drivers to safety as I-40 collapsed around them.

Now six North Carolina employees — five from the Department of Transportation and one state trooper — have received the highest award given to state workers for their efforts that day. NCDOT engineers Scottie Coggins, David Hall and Austin Phillips, IMAP drivers Garret McFalls and Christopher Strader and trooper Joe Henderson received the Governor’s Award for Excellence at a ceremony in Raleigh on Wednesday, Nov. 19.

“They went above and beyond to serve in the line of duty to protect the public and to act as heroes,” said Chris Lee, the deputy engineer for the NCDOT division that includes Pigeon River Gorge. “They saved the day, and we’re so proud of them, and we can’t thank them enough.”

The first 911 calls reporting problems with I-40 in the gorge came in just before noon on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. The remnants of Helene had dumped historic amounts of rain on the already saturated mountains of Western North Carolina and cracks appeared in the pavement as the eastbound lanes of I-40 began to break apart.

McFalls, Strader and Henderson responded to those calls. Coggins, Hall and Phillps had gone into the gorge to check on a rest area that had lost power and were soon pitching in.

“I actually watched the ground fall out from underneath the guardrails and the guardrails dangling there and the pavement cracking,” Hall said in a video made for the awards ceremony. “And we knew we had to get the people off the highway.”

The four-lane road winds along the narrow valley in Pisgah National Forest, perched on a shelf blasted into the side of the mountains. A concrete jersey barrier separated the east and westbound lanes, so as the failing highway brought eastbound traffic to a stop it had nowhere to go, trapped between the barrier and the raging river.

But about 3 miles from the state line was a metal gate in the median for emergencies like this. Some drivers figured out how to work the crank to open it enough to let cars through one at a time. McFalls, Coggins, Hall and Phillps opened the remaining sections to create a hole big enough for tractor-trailer trucks to swing through to the safety of the westbound lanes.

As more of the highway fell into the river, the six state employees, along with others, directed traffic through the gate, sometimes coaxing panicked drivers to carefully back up or take turns moving forward. According to the time stamp on a video shot by a Tennessee transportation worker who came to help, the eastbound lanes were clear about an hour and 25 minutes after the first 911 calls.

Speaking about the effort to get cars and trucks off I-40 in the weeks after Helene, the men honored this week all downplayed their individual roles and said it was a team effort. Henderson, the state trooper, even declined to speak to a reporter because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself, said his supervisor, 1st Sgt. B.E. Hipp.

But Hipp said at the time that he hoped to find a way to recognize what he considered heroism by Henderson and others who helped clear the road.

“Every day that I drive down to that gorge, I’m amazed that we didn’t lose anybody,” he said. “And I’m grateful and thankful for their actions.”

State honors another act of heroism during Helene

The Governor’s Awards for Excellence are given each year to state workers for outstanding accomplishments beyond their normal duties. Twenty-two received the awards this year in six categories. The award for those on I-40 was for “safety and heroism.”

Seven Wildlife Resources Commission employees also received the award in that category for their actions during Helene.

All seven were working at the Armstrong State Fish Hatchery in a remote area of McDowell County north of Marion when the storm hit. They tried in vain to save the hatchery and the 600,000 trout it housed as Rose and Armstrong creeks became torrents.

But they were able to save a neighbor, Michael Boone, whose house was destroyed by a landslide that carried him down Roses Creek toward the hatchery. As Boone clung to a piece of his house, he called for help. The hatchery employees were able to pull him to safety, tend to his wounds and call in a helicopter to get him medical attention.

“We get all this credit for saving Mike’s life, but he saved ours, too,” said Kailee Winters, fish culturist at the hatchery. “Because had he not been injured and needed immediate medical attention, I don’t know when we would have gotten out.”

Along with Winters, the other honored hatchery employees are Chuck Melton, Spike Gouge, Doug Arfmann, Luke Clarke, Jacob Setterlind and Elijah Winters.

This story was originally published November 21, 2025 at 1:42 PM.