NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – A NASCAR driver is now among the many people lending a hand to victims impacted by Hurricane Helene. Greg Biffle says he didn’t set out to be a hero when he took to the skies to help storm victims.
Biffle says he jumped into action after seeing a family stranded in Banner Elk, North Carolina. He says they were stuck in an Airbnb and running out of formula, food, and water.
“They were only planning to be there for a few days,” said Biffle.
So, he hopped into his helicopter to try and get to the family but ran into trouble.
“I got within about nine miles and the weather got me down too low on the mountains and I just couldn’t get in there.”
After posting about the ordeal on social media, more requests for help came in.
“People started going, ‘Hey, my parents are up there, I can’t reach them. My son, my daughter, my grandparents, we know that they’re stranded. We haven’t heard from them for two days.’ Then everybody starts seeing this and going oh gosh we’ve got more of an issue.”
More helicopters then showed up the next morning to help families in need.
“There were about seven or eight helicopters show up, by the end of the day there’s fifteen or so. The following day there were almost thirty helicopters,” said Biffle.
They’ve completed over 140 flights and delivered over 75,000lbs of supplies by truck, trailer, and aircraft.
“To see I-40 completely washed away, mudslides across all lanes, tractor trailers off the road, mobile homes in the road on I-40. Sheds, cars everywhere. What you forget about is all of these communities that are up in these mountains and it’s not one road that’s impassable, it’s every single road. There’s not one road that you can get down. And you know because it’s the mountains, all of those roads border streams or rivers. And so that stream or river has wiped out that road and so it’s just a sloped hillside.”
One day, while he was in the air, someone stranded in the mountains at the bottom of a steep canyon used a mirror to catch his attention.
“I caught it in the corner of my eye and circled around and I made six attempts down in there. Because it was so far down in I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to climb back out,” Biffle said.
He was able to get down there to give the flooding victim a chainsaw, EpiPens, insulin, food, formula, and gas.
“Those kinds of moments. That’s almost like winning the race.”
People helping people is a mission Biffle says North Carolina communities and the racing industry stand behind.
“The thing is they know companies and sponsors and they’re able to facilitate these things and get us connections and get us the things we need.”
Biffle says it’s amazing to see the number of folks pitching in to help.
“Like Polaris sending us over a hundred generators, BP fuels sending us fuel cans. Right now, someone’s sending two pallets of chainsaws from Texas.”
Biffle says the best story is Starlink.
“We put them on the helicopters and flew them into these first responders and then to communities and areas way up. And everybody was able to call their loved ones and friends and let them know that ‘hey we’re ok’.”
“My willingness to jump in and help was just, who is going to go do it if I don’t?”
Biffle has been helping for the last eight days and says he doesn’t plan to stop.
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