BY MIKE FUHRMAN

Greg Biffle was looking forward to relaxing in the Bahamas for a week in late September when the remnants of Hurricane Helene moved through Western North Carolina, dropping 30 inches of rain on the region and causing unprecedented flooding.

Moved by a plea for help that he saw on social media from a young family that was stuck in an Airbnb without food, water and other necessities, the retired NASCAR driver decided to help.

After replying to the request for assistance so other pilots would know that help was on the way, Biffle drove from his home to the Statesville Regional Airport, fueled up his Robinson R44 helicopter and flew to the region.

“If I don’t do it, who else will?” Biffle remembers thinking at the time. “I have the means and the resources. … I have the helicopter. I’m going to go and see what I can do.”

Flying conditions prevented Biffle from reaching the stranded family, but the devastation he saw from the sky that day inspired the 54-year-old Mooresville resident to do everything in his power to help the survivors of the catastrophic storm.

The Bahamas would have to wait.

After seeing more than 4,000 comments on social media concerning missing people in Western North Carolina, Biffle undertook a mission. With the support of hundreds of people, including his wife Cristina, close friends in the NASCAR community and other people he has never met, he logged long hours over the next two weeks flying relief and rescue missions.

He delivered tons of supplies — 400 pounds at a time, the maximum payload for his four-seat helicopter – to the region and pulled several survivors out of areas that were inaccessible by the ground because hundreds of roads and bridges were badly damaged or destroyed by the flooding. His efforts were concentrated in places like Little Switzerland, South Toe, Banner Elk, the Green Mountain area, and other small communities that were cut off from other areas.

In doing so, he risked his own life, flying in unknown and unforgiving territory in a relatively new helicopter and landing in areas where some other pilots might have chosen not to venture.

This story is about Biffle, but it’s also about the thousands of people who heard the desperate calls for help in Western North Carolina and answered, offering assistance in the best way they could. Biffle, in a sense, became a conduit for goodness to flow through. That’s the heart of this story.

Large network of friends, social media followers answer the call

Biffle has more than 400,000 followers on Twitter and Instagram, stemming largely from his successful racing career. A native of Vancouver, Wash., he was crowned the 2000 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion and 2002 NASCAR Busch Series champion. He racked up 19 wins 515 career starts in the Cup Series, NASCAR’s top circuit, between 2003 and 2016.

So when Biffle posts something on social media, he has an extensive reach, which includes many individuals with ties to the racing industry. That has never more evident than in the weeks following Hurricane Helene’s arrival in Western North Carolina.

When Biffle posted that he was flying to the region to assist survivors, he was immediately overwhelmed by offers to help out. Acquaintances dropped what they were doing and drove to Biffle’s house with empty gas cannisters, and friends with airplanes flew in to help with the relief and rescue effort.

A post about the need for chainsaws and gas cans resulted in Husqvarna sending hundreds of chainsaws, chains, small-engine oil and clothing. VP Fuels sent a truckload of fuel cannisters. The mention of a need for laundry detergent was met with the arrival of 10 to 12 pallets stacked high with detergent.

After Biffle touched base with a guy who knows a guy at Space X, the company that sells Starlink, a high-speed satellite internet provider, some 300 Starlink satellite kits were shipped to his house. Each unit included three months of free internet service with no commitment whatsoever, Biffle said.

Two prominent race teams also sent helicopters. And several employees of Mooresville-based teams also responded to Western North Carolina on their day off, driving their personal trucks to the area and spending long hours cutting downed trees and removing them from the roadway.

The incredible response extended far beyond Biffle’s sphere. Hundreds and hundreds of volunteers showed up at the Statesville airport and other airports across the region to weigh and box items donated by countless residents and businesses. More than 200 relief and rescue missions were flown each day for two weeks by pilots like Biffle out of four local airports.

“It’s amazing to see the camaraderie of people helping people,” Biffle said. “They don’t know these people. They saw the stories. They just wanted to help.”

In the Air & On the Ground

For eight days, Biffle’s mission was simple – try to locate missing people and deliver essential supplies to hard hit areas, mostly smaller communities that were cut off from the rest of the region by roads and bridges that were swallowed up by raging flood waters.

From the sky above, Biffle could see the need was immense. He saw debris in trees 60 feet above the ground and was stunned by the scope of the devastation.

“The vast area that was affected is so much larger than what people are visualizing,” he said. “It’s hundreds and hundreds of miles of power poles snapped in half, bridges and roads out.”

Before each flight, Biffle’s helicopter was loaded with insulin, food, water, diapers, formula, propane, fuel, heaters and other essentials.

He was accompanied by his wife Cristina or close friends like Aaron Lloyd, who served as navigator and spotter during the flights. They handled social media and responded to SOS messages from the air, while helping Biffle find a safe landing zone.

That wasn’t always a given. Biffle is an experienced pilot, but he had flown only occasionally in the past 10 years, had minimal experience flying in mountainous regions, and had less than 20 hours of seat time in the Robinson R44, which he purchased in February.

“The first three days were so stressful,” he said. “My hands and forearms were tired from flying in the mountains. It was intense, flying in places I never thought I would fly in and out of.”

Locating couples who had been reported missing by worried relatives and providing them with access to the internet with his Starlink so they could call their loved ones was an experience Biffle will never forget.

“The people they were calling didn’t know they were still alive,” he said. “It still gives me goosebumps today. Not everybody was that fortunate. They lost neighbors and friends.”

Equally rewarding, Biffle said, was being able to deliver life-saving insulin, diapers and baby formula to people who had no other way to get it.

Being able to respond in real time to requests from public service agencies demonstrated the importance of the work done by Team Biffle.

When Biffle received a call from a senior law enforcement official in the Asheville area requesting eight Starlink units that were needed for search missions utilizing drones, Biffle felt a sense of satisfaction when he could tell the official that the units had been loaded on an aircraft in Iredell County, were airborne and would arrive in less than 45 minutes.

‘It’s unbelievable’

Throughout his successful career as a NASCAR driver, Greg Biffle fully understood the importance of teamwork. No driver reaches the winner’s circle or wins a coveted championship without the help of engineers, haulers, the pit crew, and other team members.

The same is true of Biffle’s work in Western Carolina. And he is the first to acknowledge the contributions of every single person who supported his mission.

“It’s just overwhelming when you start thinking about what all these people did,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”