Rep. Cory Mills assists with Helene response in North Carolina 

Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) is on site in western North Carolina helping provide supplies and evacuation support to the communities devastated by Helene. 

Mills on Monday focused on dropping in with a helicopter to provide supplies like food, water, and diapers to those impacted by the storms.

“Today we were able to drop between three, four thousand pounds of supplies into Asheville, North Carolina,” Mills said in a video posted to X.

On Tuesday, Mills said he planned to do welfare checks, drop more supplies, or provide transportation to a nearby hospital or medical facility if necessary.

“What we’re going to be looking at are areas that are harder to get to,” Mills said in a video shared with The Hill, saying that one of the locations they were targeting on Tuesday has elderly people, while another had an eight-year-old. One area being targeted is Burnsville, N.C.

The first-term congressman said he was working with the charity Mercury One, a nonprofit that was founded by conservative commentator Glenn Beck.

Mills, Army veteran and a defense contractor, is no stranger to personally jumping into crisis situations. 

He previously personally helped evacuate Americans from Israel last year following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks. And when he was a congressional candidate in 2021, he assisted with evacuating refugees from Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal of troops from the country.

The death toll from Helene has topped 130, and thousands caught in the storm’s path across several states remained without power as of Tuesday morning. Roads in the western part of North Carolina were washed away or blocked, leaving some communities inaccessible by vehicle.

The White House said as many as 600 people were unaccounted for as of Monday afternoon.