East Carolina University
10/10/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 10/10/2024 11:41
ECU dental school alumnus flies supplies to hurricane-stricken communities
ECU dental school alumnus flies supplies to hurricane-stricken communities
Published Oct 10, 2024 by
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Days after Hurricane Helene delivered devastation to western North Carolina, Dr. Jonathan Austin answered a phone call - and made good on a promise he made years earlier to serve his community and state.
Austin - a Lincolnton native and 2016 graduate of the East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine - loaded his Piper Arrow plane with much-needed supplies and took off for some of the most hard-hit areas after the storm.
Austin's plane skimmed the clear air above the stricken region, through mist and clouds that soon revealed rivers, lakes and streams swollen beyond their banks. He saw the unrecognizable wreckage of towns and communities and smears of red clay chewed from the mountains by mudslides.
But when the wheels of the plane touched down at small regional airports, Austin was met with open hearts and hands, grateful and compassionate people ready to help their communities rebuild.
During his numerous trips delivering supplies, Austin observed the beauty and breaking point of nature - but he also witnessed the strength and spirit of humanity.
ECU School of Dental Medicine alumnus Dr. Jonathan Austin, right, and his safety pilot fly supplies to hurricane stricken areas in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. (Photos contributed by Jonathan Austin)
The call to serve
When he received a phone call imploring him to help deliver post-storm supplies to the damaged region, Austin, who practices at Austin Dentistry in Lincolnton, didn't hesitate.
He first flew into the Jackson County Airport near Sylva on the evening of Sept. 29 and made several more trips during the days following the hurricane, carrying in-demand items from food and distilled water to diapers, insulin and manual breast-milk pumps.
Dr. Jonathan Austin, right, helps load his Piper Arrow plane with supplies to take to western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene.
Austin balanced those flights with continuing to provide oral health care to his patients - using his education and life experiences from dental school, the military and dental practice to touch the lives of people whose paths he crossed in the storm's aftermath.
"You know, everybody was kind of helping everybody, and everybody was asking about everybody," Austin said of the supply flight experience. "There's people that I think I will probably talk to for the rest of our lives."
Answering the call came naturally to Austin.
A 2004 graduate of West Lincoln High School, he attended Appalachian State University for a time before enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps and serving two deployments in Iraq. He returned to Appalachian State and earned a bachelor's degree in cell and molecular biology with a minor in chemistry. After earning his Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from ECU, he fulfilled a personal promise to return to practice in his hometown.
"I had always known I wanted to return to my hometown to practice, which lines up with the mission of the dental school," Austin said, referring to the school's efforts to educate dentist leaders for North Carolina's most rural and underserved communities.
Over the years, Austin has kept volunteerism high on his list of priorities, completing eight to 10 hours of service a week, on average. He volunteers with the North Carolina Missions of Mercy, Baptist Dental Bus and Give Kids a Smile. He is a member of the American Dental Association, North Carolina Dental Society, Academy of General Dentistry and the Denver/Lake Norman Rotary Club. He also flew search and rescue during a several-year stint with the Civil Air Patrol.
"I was always sort of programmed for this," Austin said.
The view from above
The view from Dr. Jonathan Austin's plane as he flies over western North Carolina
When it came to coordination and communication, Austin had to wing it.
His first few flights were shrouded in fog and mist, the airport runways closed because of flooding. When the clouds cleared, though, Austin was able to see the true nature of Hurricane Helene's destruction.
He saw a mobile home park compacted into a mountainside; he could make out cars tossed aside like toys. Mud caked broken asphalt and pooled in the lower points, drying and cracking in the sun.
"It was just debris," he said. "It looked like somebody had just flooded everything. It was pretty crazy. The area was just devastated, seeing it from that view."
For this crisis response, Austin and those helping load supplies on his plane had to ensure balance and weight measurements were precise, being careful not to overload the plane and dividing the supplies into multiple trips. He flew into counties including Jackson and Ashe, flying only briefly over Asheville, one of the hardest hit cities. For the first few days, the airports didn't even have power, much less assurance that someone would be there to guide the plane in and unload supplies.
"We were just worried if there was going to be anybody in the airport, and we hadn't heard any reports out of it," he said. "We had to land on the taxiway first, because the runway was flooded."
But as word spread through the affected communities, volunteers showed up in droves to help unload the supplies and deploy them where needed.
Austin said the experience was an opportunity for him to respond with his resources, skills and desire to serve, companied with his overseas deployments.
"I've seen some things, if that makes sense. It's similar to when I was overseas to a certain extent," he said. "You're sort of programmed for this kind of response and this kind of service to other people."
Austin said he and many of his dental school classmates stay in touch, from bonding activities like hunting and fishing to working in tandem to benefit their communities.
"We're not afraid to get our hands dirty," he said. "Several of us in our class knew we would return to our hometowns to practice dentistry and help our communities. With this, I just tried to do what needed to be done."