‘This was a life-or-death situation’ Va. State Police detail daring helicopter rescue

A viral video from Virginia State Police released Friday shows two of the agency’s helicopters rescuing flood victims from the roof of an Eastern Tennessee hospital.

“This was a life-or-death situation; we knew it wasn’t much of a decision,” Virginia State Police Lt. Col. Matt Hanley told reporters Monday after sharing video of the daring rescue from the roof of a rural Tennessee hospital.

The rescue operation was run by VSP’s Med-Flight II, part of the agency’s aviation teams around the state.

Hanley said the call for help originally came from the Tennessee side of the state line as heavy rains kept choppers there grounded. But the skies were clear enough on the VSP stepped into action.

“We initially flew out, put one skid on the side of the building, cause this hospital isn’t designed to land a helicopter on it. Our pilots positioned the helicopter just above the building," Hanley said. "We unloaded two crew members to explain to the people on the building what was going to happen, then we started rotating helicopters in.”

Hanley said the years of training paid off, but he could only imagine what was going through the minds of those being rescued, as the water rose, and two helicopters danced above them.

“They call them skid rescues, and they’re something they practice pretty frequently," Hanley said. "So, our pilots were pretty confident in their ability to pull it off, but I'm sure there were some nervous people on the roof.”

The team was able to rescue 40 people over the course of four hours. By then the skies had cleared and a Black Hawk helicopter from the Tennessee National Guard was able to save the remaining 20.

Details of the rescue were provided after Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin met with state emergency teams at VSP's headquarters in Chesterfield Monday morning.

Youngkin told reporters more localities are expected to be added to a federal emergency declaration approved by President Joe Biden over the weekend.

They’re also expediting Virginia’s application for a major disaster declaration which will help deliver more resources to the area, offering more direct financial support in the coming months.

Youngkin said it’s still too difficult to put a dollar amount on the damage. But he said it’s going to be big.

"Aggregating the personal loses, the business loses," Youngkin said, his voice shaky after being notably impact by the damage he witnessed after traveling through the region over the weekend. "We toured businesses that didn’t know when they were going to reopen again, and they’ve got big damage to their facilities. We’ve got roads out and bridges out."

Brad Kutner

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Radio IQ

Youngkin said responders don’t believe there are any additional life-threatening situations that need immediate response. Crews are now starting to focus on restoring power and communications, as well as assessing damaged roads, bridges and structures.

Youngkin also said major dams along the New River in Southwest Virginia are safe. Crews are working to clear debris like propane tanks and cars that’s collected behind them.

Emergency officials are also trying to make people aware of the potential for new flooding, with continuing showers and storms from the remnants of Hurricane Helene over already saturated areas.

"The whole stretch up into the New River Valley has got real risk associated with it. So, we’re asking people to go to safe places, if they need shelters we’ve got 'em," Youngkin said. "And we understand people are hesitant to leave their stuff, but we’ve got to get people into safe places for the rest of the week."

The Governor said emergency officials are paying attention to possible storm systems developing in the Caribbean and Atlantic.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.