Over 20 workers from a Chatham electric company are back home after helping people affected by the hurricanes that hit North Carolina and Florida.
Crews with Maple City Electric recrossed the border last week after spending 21 days conducting emergency power line repairs.
They were originally only going to fix damage caused by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, but offered to go to Florida after seeing the impact Hurricane Milton had.
Jesse Hoekstra, co-owner of Maple City Electric, told CK News Today some of the scenes they saw, especially around Asheville, North Carolina, will be hard to forget.
"The dam overflowed and washed the highways away. I got photos of a truck up in a tree just because of the amount of flooding that happened," he said.
He explained there were also trees as tall as buildings that were just ripped out of the ground.
Even though they arrived after the hurricanes hit, it didn't mean they were completely safe.
"We had some guys, the highway washed out in front of them and behind them and they were trapped for two days," added Hoekstra.
Each was rescued, but rescue efforts were quite difficult as there was no cell phone service or power.
Despite the ordeals, Hoekstra explained they knew they had to help.
"It doesn't matter where you're from, what you're doing, we're just down there to help get the power back on," he added.
Meanwhile, this isn't the first time Maple City Electric has helped people in the United States.
They were in Florida after Hurricane Ian in 2022 and have also made trips to help areas overwhelmed with ice storm recovery efforts.
