In the wake of Hurricane Helene, much of upstate South Carolina and western North Carolina was left without power. Duke Energy linemen worked tirelessly to restore power after the storm. On October 4, 2024, the energy company announced that over 2.16 million customers in the Carolinas had their power restored; this includes the Asheville VA Medical Center in North Carolina. Power was restored to the hospital by two linemen, including an Air Force veteran, who hiked nearly two miles through debris and rough terrain to reach the facility.
The historic city of Asheville, home of the Biltmore Estate and located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, witnessed record-breaking flooding during Hurricane Helene. On September 27, 2024, the French Broad River in Asheville rose to 24.67 feet. The previous highest water level of 23.10 feet was recorded in July 1916. Flooding, combined with wind, felled trees and tossed debris that cut power around the city, including the VA hospital. Journeyman lineman Matt Martinka and his line apprentice, Nathan Curlee, were determined to fix it.
“I heard in the office there was a chance we could get the VA backfed…and get the VA hospital back on,” Martinka said in a Duke Energy video. “I come from a long line of [military] family—my dad, my grandpa, all my nieces, I was Air Force, my son is a Marine—so I said, ‘Hey, I want this.’” He presented the job to Curlee, who agreed to go, and the two men set out to restore power. “We were like, ‘Let’s get this on for the VA,’” Martinka recalled.
However, getting to the Asheville VA Medical Center wasn’t easy. Roads were made impassable by debris, trees, or were washed out entirely by the flooding. As a result, Martinka and Curlee hiked up and down rough terrain and through thick vegetation to reach the hospital. “Every step, you were almost losing your boots in the mud,” Martinka said. “When we finally got there, it actually made it kinda hard to climb because I had so much mud on my boots. But, it was all worth it to get the VA on.”
“We found a way to hike in. I had to climb a pole and disconnect one span, pretty much just pole-to-pole, and pretty much make it safe to energize that line to feed the VA,” Curlee recalled of the job in the same Duke Energy video. “It was a pretty good feeling. I felt like we, in our own way, gave back. I mean, them guys have given so much, so in our own way we gave it back to them.”
Although power has been restored to the Asheville VA, services remain limited as the facility and the city work to recover in the aftermath of the storm. As of October 5, 3:00 PM, the Asheville VA reports that the main facility is open for pharmacy services and emergency care only. Updates and resources can be found on the medical center’s website.