VIDEO: A swift water rescue team is back in the Triangle after spending 10 days saving lives in western North Carolina.
Pictures show catastrophic damage in the area, but in-person, Wake Forest Fire Department Captain Kyle Mangum says it is so much worse.
“Anything you see on TV…times 10,” he described. He’s seen first-hand the fury from the rainwater and a community’s desperation watching that water rise. “They were scared,” he recalled. “They said the water [came] up so fast they just couldn’t prepare for it.” Captain Mangum is part of a swift water rescue team based in the Triangle. Six members from the Wake Forest Fire Department and six from the Knightdale Fire Department arrived in western North Carolina before the storm and received their first call about 2 a.m. the day Helene hit.