Elon University alumni have been on the ground or helping from afar to aid recovery efforts in western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene.
As hurricane season continues, the southeastern U.S. is still cleaning up from Hurricane Helene in late September. The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane, causing destruction across the southeastern United States. It is also now the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005.
Western North Carolina was hit particularly hard by the storm. Several communities have been severely damaged, and others, like the village of Chimney Rock, were nearly wiped out. As recovery efforts continue, Elon University alumni have been on the ground to help those impacted by the storm.
Scott Muthersbaugh ‘06
Scott Muthersbaugh ’06 is the public information officer (PIO) for Guilford County Emergency Services and was based out of the emergency operations center in downtown Asheville.
As the PIO, Muthersbaugh was responsible for capturing content to show recovery efforts in action.
“I spent some time showing the damage, which really is striking. But I tried to focus that through the lens of perseverance and resiliency and show that people are carrying on in spite of this, and showing the community really drawing together,” said Muthersbaugh.
Muthersbaugh graduated from Elon in 2006 with a degree in broadcast journalism and psychology. He’s worked with Guilford County Emergency Services since 2005, initially as an EMT, then as a paramedic, and since 2020, he has worked as the PIO. However, this was his first deployment to the site of a natural disaster.
“It’s basically indescribable in terms of the damage,” said Muthersbaugh. “There was a 50-foot oil drum sitting on a bridge over the river, and it’s not even clear where that came from. Pictures don’t do it justice. But there is really a spirit of community, perseverance and gratitude.”
Briton Wertz ’98
Helping those affected by natural disasters is personal for Briton Wertz ’98. She began working as a paramedic and firefighter while she was a student at Elon in 1996. In 1999, she moved to Guilford County EMS before leaving for Cape Carteret in 2007 to work as a paramedic, before teaching high school health sciences, but eventually going back to first-responder work. But when Hurricane Florence hit in 2017 – she found herself in an unimaginable situation.
“It was raining inside of my townhome,” she said. “I opened the door, the lights were off and I put my foot down inside of the threshold and got splashed with water. I was like ‘Where do I go from here?’”
Even though she had plenty of first-responder experience, she was not used to being on the other side of the situation.
“As first responders, we don’t ask for help. We give help, that’s what we do,” Wertz said. “That’s what we live for. And so the biggest lesson to me was that if I don’t allow others to help me, I’m denying them the gift of giving.”
Wertz eventually got back on her feet, moving back to Guilford County and is now a career and technical education teacher at Southern Guilford High School teaching public safety and emergency medical technology – the only program in Guilford County Public Schools. So, when Hurricane Helene hit, she did the only thing she knew how to do: jump into action.
“It’s in my nature to serve. It’s who I am,” she said. “Elon nurtured that.” Today at Elon spoke with Wertz in 2022 about how Elon shaped her life and career.
Using her position at Southern Guilford High School, Wertz organized a donation drive with her students, delivering the supplies to Brevard, North Carolina.
“I was able to directly take things that my students had donated and put them into the hands of one specific family. I brought back pictures and was like, ‘These are the people that you helped,’” said Wertz. “The students were excited because most people think you’re not going to have an impact unless you donate hundreds or thousands of items. They just saw that there is no such thing as too little.”
While in western North Carolina, she also teamed up with active-duty military and veterans clearing trees so more than a dozen families could reach their homes in Barnardsville.
“Most people, when they see something like this, it’s sadness,” she said. “But, for me, the further I drove into the mountains, the more hopeful I became because I saw the outpouring of love and support”
Wertz’s efforts have been highlighted by Guilford County Public Schools, Education NC, WXII and WFMY News 2.
Wesley Berry ‘15
Wesley Berry ’15 is finishing a 12-week training program with the Johnson City Fire Department in Johnson City, Tennessee, another community hit hard by Helene.
Berry initially moved to Erwin, Tennessee, in the summer of 2010 as a white-water rafting guide on the Nolichucky River. He took small breaks to finish his environmental science degree at Elon in 2015. Berry not only serves as a guide on the river but is a manager and guide recruiter for USA Raft and has been running the guide training program for the past five years.
Since the storm hit, Berry has been involved with clearing roads to enable evacuations and supply runs and has helped deliver relief supplies all over the affected region. After he finishes his training program, he will be more heavily involved in relief efforts.
“You wouldn’t believe the damage. It’s like something out of a disaster movie, only ten times worse,” Berry said. “This was a once-in-a-century storm for this region. When you think of hurricanes or tropical storms, you don’t think about those impacting small mountain towns. But Asheville, Erwin, and the surrounding areas have been changed forever. This place is not recognizable.
“I ran the Nolichucky the week before the storm hit, and that is the last time I will ever run those rapids and see the banks of the river in that way,” he said. “While I’m heartbroken to see the river and landscape change, I’m completely devastated for my friends and community members who have lost everything. It’s going to take a long time to heal and rebuild. Erwin is an amazing town filled with resilient people, and we will help each other recover.”
Berry’s sister-in-law and fellow Elon alumna Melissa Martlock Berry ’15 is raising money for the relief efforts with her friend Ashley Edwards Combs by selling handmade crochet items. With her brother-in-law living in Erwin and her sister living in Asheville, Martlock Berry wanted to do something to help those impacted. The pair is selling Halloween-themed items but will soon change to Christmas/Winter holiday items. For more information, email mmberry16@gmail.com.
Aidan Burnside ‘23
Aidan Burnside ’23 works for Leidos, an engineering firm contracted with Duke Energy. While his day-to-day job involves designing electrical poles to power homes and businesses, during storm season, he goes out to affected areas and is the “first eyes” on the electrical grid. The work involves surveying entire cities and towns and sending the information back to Duke Energy. It takes about two days per area.
“We’re giving Duke Energy a heads up, telling them ‘this is what you need’ so that they can optimize their line crews with the materials they’re going to need,” said Burnside.
After Helene, Burnside and his colleagues visited several communities hit by the storm, including Hickory, Gastonia, Rutherfordton, and Chimney Rock in North Carolina and Spartanburg in South Carolina.
“It was amazing being out there and seeing all of the coordination,” said Burnside, who graduated from Elon with dual degrees in engineering (computer science concentration) and entrepreneurship and innovation. “They had hundreds of crews in from all over the country; they also had crews in from Canada and Mexico. It was this huge effort to restore power.”
While Burnside has responded to smaller storms, this was his first time doing storm response with a hurricane of this magnitude.
“In Chimney Rock, they were excavating the mud, and the analogy I’ve used there is that it’s like digging through dirt with a spoon. It’s barely making a dent,” said Burnside. “What I found to be interesting, despite all of the destruction there, the natural beauty of the area still remained, which was this really dark juxtaposition. We’re seeing all this devastation right in front of us. But then you look up, and the Chimney Rock is still there.”
One of the most impactful moments for Burnside was helping a woman in Gastonia, where an electrical wire from her home fell on a metal shed, causing the shed to be energized.
“She was in a life-threatening situation,” said Burnside. “This was our opportunity as a storm response team to truly save lives. I’m very grateful we were able to do that that, and I definitely don’t take that lightly.”
Read President Connie Ledoux Book’s message on how the Elon community can support those affected by Hurricane Helene.
If you know an Elon student, faculty, staff or alumni helping with recovery efforts in western North Carolina, please email Avery Craine Powell, associate director of the Elon University News Bureau at acrainepowell@elon.edu.