BUCKHANNON, W.Va. — A Harrison County resident with a helicopter is donating his services and equipment to help the residents of Upshur and Lewis counties in their hour of need.
Justin Prickett operates a hangar for his aircraft in Buckhannon and uses the MD-500, a light utility helicopter that can get into tight places to conduct searches.
First, the drive from Harrison County to the hangar in Buckhannon would normally take about 20 minutes, but during last Tuesday’s storms the drive was more than two hours.
Prickett said the damage in Buckhannon was catastrophic, and what he saw during his first survey flight was shocking.
“Weston got nailed, and surprisingly the damage between the two is really bad,” Prickett said. “I was flabbergasted as to how high the water got there, where the Walmart is in Weston and the hotel across from there.”
From the air, you can see the flood-ravaged area and damaged buildings as well as the areas right next door that were spared by the storms.
“You can look on one side of the ridge and you can see somebody out on a tranquil, perfect day walking their dog or mowing their lawn,” Prickett said. “Then you look on the other side, and it’s nothing but brown where the floodwaters have receded.”
His work in the flood zone has been a mix of search and damage assessment. The MD-500 can run up the hollers, turn around on a dime, and backtrack to double-check the search area. For damage assessment, Prickett has room to take a passenger, and an assessment from the air can take minutes from the air.
“Paying more attention to the low-level areas and seeing if there are people that are still cut off, is there even access to get in there, and taking people to document the area and bridges that have blown out,” Prickett said.
Prickett worked Hurricane Helene doing just about the same type of work. Unfortunately, he knows what he could see after his work in North Carolina.
“You follow the flow of the water with the helicopter and then you’re looking at where the water flow would take and push the vehicle, or push in some cases small buildings and things that have floated by which would include people,” Prickett said.
Prickett said he’s helping out because “you can’t put a price on your neighbors.” He went on to urge people to make donations to an approved relief effort to help the community back to normal.
“For me, the cost—I don’t care; I’ll figure it out one way or the other it doesn’t matter,” Prickett said. “I’ve got a lot of people calling wanting to donate, and I would rather people donate to the people down there rather than to me.”