Utah Conservation Corps Responds to Hurricane Helene in North Carolina

LOGAN, Utah —The Utah Conservation Corps recently responded to support AmeriCorps Disaster Response Teams (A-DRT) in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.

Jacob Marshall from the UCC stepped up to be the incident commander of AmeriCorps programs that deployed in the fall. This effort included AmeriCorps members from AmeriCorps St. Louis, Conservation Corps Minnesota & Iowa, Conservation Corps North Carolina, American Conservation Experience East, and SBP.

Marshall’s leadership included managing command operations and overseeing a command team consisting of a safety officer, operations chief and logistics chief. Jacob previously deployed as a UCC A-DRT member to Florida in 2023 after Hurricane Ian.

UCC was part of A-DRT’s response to hurricanes Helene and Milton that sent teams to Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. AmeriCorps members provided critical support to hurricane survivors, assisting in shelters, with survivor assistance work, debris removal, and mucking and gutting of homes. AmeriCorps team members in North Carolina under Jacob’s lead conducted 39 damage assessments, mucked and gutted 13 structures, removed 20 hazard trees, removed 405 cubic yards of debris, and distributed 10,310 pounds of donations.

Center for Community Engagement Executive Director Sean Damitz adds: “We’re proud of Jacob for jumping into this leadership role and his enthusiasm to serve those in North Carolina affected by Hurricane Helene.”

Since 2001, more than 2,800 UCC AmeriCorps members have served over 2 million hours of national service that has included fifteen disaster response deployments in 10 different states.

UCC is an AmeriCorps program based out of Utah State University’s Center for Community Engagement. For more information about UCC, visit www.usu.edu/ucc.