SALISBURY, N.C. — As part of the search and rescue operations in western North Carolina, 29 inmates were transported from the Avery County Detention Center to Rowan County last week.
This was the first rescue mission for the Rowan Country Sheriff’s Department following Hurricane Helene.
Rowan County Sheriff Travis Allen said his department had recently purchased two large side-by-sides. These vans are traditionally used by law enforcement to transport inmates from their facilities to necessary appointments scheduled outside the jail.
Allen said the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association has an emergency network that notifies departments whenever a sheriff in the state is in need. However, he decided to contact Avery County Sheriff Mike Henley days before Helene entered North Carolina to offer his department’s help.
“We are both relatively new sheriffs. We were in the same sheriff’s institute school. He had become a friend in that school, so I called him up and said, ‘Mike, what do you need,’” Allen explained.
Allen quickly learned that western North Carolina communities needed as much help as they could get, but Henley first needed help with his jail.
“He said, ‘can you bring jailers to watch our inmates?’ And we got to thinking, it would be so much easier, we thought easier, to bring them down the mountain to us … then he can focus all his man power on his people,” Allen said.
Allen explained mountain communities have much smaller detention facilities than those located in and around major cities. He compared the 29 inmates in Avery County to the sometimes 300 he holds in Rowan County.
Allen and his team traveled more than 100 miles to Avery County on Sept. 28. They traveled along N.C. 181 through Morganton. He said the winding roads, downed trees and power lines made access to the detention facility difficult.
“It was just so hazardous and just so steep. It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get up, something that should have only taken us 30 minutes,” Allen said.
When Allen arrived to get the inmates, he could see the conditions of the jail were not livable.
“The inmates hadn’t had any showers or food. They had had some limited food services and water, but that’s it. No power, no electricity, no lights,” Allen said.
The inmates were loaded into the transport vehicles and deputies headed back toward N.C. 181.
“I’ve been in law enforcement 30 years and I was probably the most nervous and scared I’ve ever been in my career," Allen said.“I’ve been in law enforcement 30 years and I was probably the most nervous and scared I’ve ever been in my career," Allen said. "You’re driving over and driving under power lines. That was the biggest concern, there was the visibility,”
It took the Rowan County Sheriffs Department three and a half hours to return to Salisbury, where inmates were met with warm meals, showers, linens and access to free text messaging to notify family that they were safe.
“We’ve arranged it so that inmates can get free phone calls and texts to their relatives. So they can reach out, and they’re making accommodations for them so they can make sure they can contact their loved ones and their loved ones can contact them,” Allen said.
The 29 inmates will be held at the Rowan County Detention Center until they can go back to Avery County. Allen acknowledges that the increase in inmates burdens his understaffed facility, but he’s committed to helping other law enforcement officers who might assist him in the future.
Deputies with the Rowan County Sheriffs Department are in and out of western North Carolina on a rotation, to make sure they are able to be of great service to the communities suffering from Hurricane Helene.
