A North Carolina school reopened for the first time in weeks since the remnants of Hurricane Helene destroyed its highway access, due in part from the help North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) received from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KTYTC).
“Kentucky transportation workers in North Carolina are helping to speed the recovery process and are allowing North Carolina crews to spread out to help more people, more quickly,” Gov. Andy Beshear said, in a statement. “When it comes to looking out for our neighbors, whether they live next door, in the next county or in another state, I’m incredibly grateful we have public servants who don’t hesitate to answer that call.”
Since the hurricane blew through the state, NCDOT employees have reopened nearly 900 roads, and Kentucky crews have helped clean up 7,500 damaged sites, according to Gov. Beshear’s office.
Part of that clean up includes cutting trees, clearing mud slides and rebuilding roadways.
The first crews were dispatched from the Lexington, Flemingsburg, Jackson and Pikeville highway districts Oct 3 and Oct. 4 officials said. Since then, crews from Manchester, Madisonville, Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, Somerset, Louisville and Covington highway districts have made their way to North Carolina.
“Our crews have already made a difference in the lives of countless North Carolinians,” said Jim Gray, the secretary of the KYTC, in a statement. “They’ve been highly commended by residents and officials alike because they’re self-sufficient and know a thing or two about how to respond to broken roads – having dealt with our own tornadoes and floods just a few short years ago.”
Louisville and Manchester crews worked on Bee Tree Road in Swannoanoa, and they hauled more than 300 truck loads of materials to reconstruct whole lanes on that roadway officials said.
KYTC officials said other crews are also helping in Tennessee and Florida, as well as other places impacted by Helene and Milton.
Source: WHAS11.com, MSN.com
