Forest Service Employee Helps Clean Up After Hurricane Helene
Author: mt43news staff reporter
Forest Service Employee Helps Clean Up After Hurricane Helene
MT43 News Staff Reporter
Everything all at once. That’s what the ten people in the Pisgah National Forest District office in Ashville, North Carolina needed from cleanup crews after the 1,000-year Hurricane Helene hit the area the end of September.
Townsend Ranger District employee Philip Knaub assessed the situation after he volunteered to join an incident command team from North and South Carolina, Colorado and Montana, November 12. During the two-week assignment, he and others had flown to Ashville, population 95,000, to organize more cleanup for the beleaguered District.
“After we arrived, we began the needed engineering plans to help rebuild flooded roads, remove debris and generally help clear the heavily forested areas that were completely wrecked. “Our job was to assess and prioritize damaged areas, then help get crews on the ground to clear downed trees, rock, and mudslides and to rebuild bridges and roadways.” He explained. “We arrived a month and a half after the hurricane. It was halfway through our assignment that we assisted in getting potable water to all parts of Ashville, which is a big city. We saw the craziest stuff. Near the Swannanoa River which runs through Ashville, we saw what looked like white confetti in the trees. It was plastic sacks from a nearby recycling plant, he pointed out.
It was about water, he said. Equipment crews constantly fought the battle of trying to clear forest areas in deep ravines where so much water had destroyed houses and roads. This hurricane brought 14 inches of rain in 72 hours. Crews flew drones deep into forest areas to assess the damage because, with no open roads or trails, crews on the ground could not access the areas.
The Pisgah National Forest is made up of 500,000 acres of mile-high peaks, waterfalls and heavily forested slopes along with hundreds of miles of trails, according to Wikipedia.
The 28-year forest fire veteran has worked many complex operations as section chief with the Forest Service’s National Complex Incident Team. The team works as a liaison between command teams and people on the ground doing the cleanup work. Knaub had been to the Black Mountain, North Carolina fire eight years ago, so he was familiar with the area. He also reported for work at Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Hurricane Sandy in New York area.
The 10-man/woman team stayed in Ashville hotels along with Red Cross, utility crews and other relief workers where they had good water and electricity. “The utility crews were pretty effective at getting power reinstalled. Along the roads where electrical poles were down, you would see a cracked or broken-off pole with a new one right beside it holding up new wire,” he explained.
Knaub, raised in Toston, graduated from Broadwater High School on a Sunday in 1997 and reported for work at the Townsend District Ranger Station on Monday. He has been there since then.
In addition to his on-the-ground- work, Knaub built a website, Sharepoint, on which districts in the country can ask for specific help and garner information about where help might be available. “This has been great and so helpful in pulling together all the moving parts for addressing national emergencies such as hurricanes and fires,” he said.
As he looked back on his assignment, he said he could see how difficult it was for the Forest Service people to meet the challenges of such a huge emergency. “Their seasonal workforce had just left at the end of summer, “ he said, “ many of the district employees themselves were impacted by the hurricane.”
Article Images
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PhotoCredit: Photo Provided by Philip Knaub
Image 1 Caption: Philip Knaub on a fire in the Pryor Mountains in 2022.
Photo Provided by Philip Knaub
Image 2 Caption: Road washout on NC State Highway 80 north of Marion, NC.
Photo Provided by Philip Knaub
Image 3 Caption: Washed out train tracks and rail cars covered with PVC pipe that was washed downstream in the Swannanoa River.
Photo Provided by Philip Knaub
Image 4 Caption: Ruined house along Buck Creek north of Marion, NC.
Photo Provided by Philip Knaub
