How Kansas City K9 firefighters and volunteers saved lives in response of Hurricane Helene

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - As of this week, Hurricane Helene has been blamed for at least 232 deaths across six different states. Kansas City firefighters and other volunteers flocked across the southeast to offer their help recently, turning into a life-saving trip for some literally stuck in the ruins.

Kansas City firefighters are back at work here at the Rescue Division but what they saw down south after Helene hit will stay with them and volunteers long after they’ve come home.

Captain Tyler Grosser has seen a lot of disasters over the years with his K-9 Dexter but nothing has mounted up to Hurricane Helene.

“This one is definitely at the top of the list,” Captain Grosser said.

That’s because Captain Grosser has never seen damage more widespread. But day-by-day, they pushed through, and it wasn’t always recoveries of bodies.

“There was one day that Dexter located a live person in a pile of debris,” Capt. Grosser continued. “That person had been there for six days. That was uplifting for everybody around.”

Local business owners were also on the ground handing out donations from the Kansas City Metro. KCTV first met Heather Menteer gathering donations at her tattoo shop in Lathrop. Enough came in to fill a 25-foot U-Haul truck and 40-foot trailer. She’s still in Tennessee.

“It’s extremely surreal looking at a beautiful flowing river and then seeing pieces of somebody’s house or a church gutted in half,” Menteer recalled.

Thanks to donations given by Menteer and her team, charities like Breadbasket suddenly had more household items and medicine to give. That came after their facility also washed away.

“They still have to give all these things out to their community even though they have nothing,” Menteer said. “So, to see somebody struggling to have the bare minimum and then give it to their people even though they have nothing, I think that was extremely impactful.”

The clean up is still far from over. If you can donate or want to help, a GoFundMe page has been setup to help the Breadbasket Charity rebuild the church they were stationed in.

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