Hurricane Helene was one of the most devastating hurricanes to hit the Southeastern United States, resulting in severe flooding, the loss of power, and at least 130 deaths to date. With so many people stranded without assistance or ability to communicate with the outside, various figures including Greg Biffle and Cleetus McFarland have stepped up to provide assistance.
Both former Stadium Super Trucks competitors, Biffle and McFarland—real name Garrett Mitchell—have been flying helicopters across North Carolina with supplies. While McFarland lives in Florida, Biffle offered his home in Leicester as a place to stay while they work on airlifting donations.
McFarland’s helicopter, an MD 500 nicknamed Consuela, coordinated with locals on the ground to create landing zones in cities like Asheville, one of the most severely affected locations. McFarland described the devastation as “Take what you’re seeing on the news and multiply it 10x.”
Pace Offroad, a UTV shop owned by Biffle in Mooresville, serves as the main hub for accumulating supplies before flying them out. According to Biffle on Monday, Polaris sent “a full thing of generators” while Interstate Cycle donated “all the fuel containers they have in their inventory.” Starlink has also sent 300 units of their satellites to re-establish an Internet connection.
“Lots of things happening for these stranded people up in the mountains,” Biffle continued. “We’re going to keep the effort going. We’re getting all these messages. Newborns, one week old, need formula, gasoline, chains and chainsaws, bar oil, two-stroke oil, that is the most important thing people are requesting now. We’re going to keep flying this stuff in.
“Hopefully the roads are gonna continue to get better, but thank you Starlink, thank you SpaceX, thank you Polaris, everybody for reaching out. I’ve got so many messages, so many helicopters coming. 407s, Sikorsky S-76s, EC120s, everybody’s just sending their machines like crazy to help this effort.
“We’re so blessed in this country to have this kind of support.”
McFarland, one of the most well known automotive YouTubers who ran much of the SST calendar in 2022, is no stranger to assisting in disaster relief. His home state is often hit by hurricanes that resulted in damage to his property such as Ian and Debby.
Biffle is a nineteen-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner with four SST podiums to his name. With North Carolina being home to most NASCAR teams, many of his colleagues in stock car industry have also been involved with humanitarian efforts; NASCAR Cup Series teams Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports have both sent helicopters out as well, while 23XI Racing has donated USD$500 thousand each to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund and Second Harvest of Metrolina.
