FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) — CBS17 is the first news outlet with newly released redacted 911 calls during Helene from Buncome County. Those 911 calls were routed 300 miles away to Fayetteville's 911 Call Center.
Within a 3-hour window, more than a thousand calls abruptly lit up the phone lines of The City of Fayetteville's 911 Call Center the morning of September 27, 2024.
All of those calls were flooding the lines from hard hit Western North Carolina areas including Swannanoa.
"We came in thinking it's going to be a normal day and then the bottom fell out," said Jennifer Osborn, Training and Compliance Administrator for Fayetteville 911 Call Center.
Calls were coming from families that were trapped in floating homes, as flood waters quickly rose.
"We got calls where kids trapped in fl