KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Fire departments across the country traveled to North Carolina to help after Hurricane Helene hit, including Kansas City's very own.
The firefighters who came back said it was a devastation unlike anything they've seen before.
"The most notable difference is that is was so vast," KCFD Capt. Tyler Grosser said.
Grosser and his K9, Dexter, spent 17 days doing rescue and recovery efforts in North Carolina.
"Between Dexter and I, we definitely had some really long days," Grosser said.
They helped find some of the 97 people who were killed in North Carolina during the devastating storm.
"To bring closure to the families or to locate their loved ones really means a lot," Grosser said. "Nobody wants to have an unknown out there."
Grosser, along with KCFD Capt. Ben Schloegel, Battalion Chief Aaron Eastlund and Brett Meuschke, all with Missouri Task Force 1, joined the dozens of emergency service agencies helping the Appalachian communities.
Schloegel explained the destruction spanned for hundreds of miles.
"I have never seen anything at this scale," Schloegel said.
Schloegel has served with Missouri Task Force 1 for years, deploying to countless disaster site. But the devastation from Hurricane Helene, he says, sticks with him.
"It never stopped, even when you went to the next county over," Schloegel said. "It was the size and scale that we had not seen, and I think it would be fair to say it was overwhelming to see for the first time."
But among the houses swept away and the lives forever changed, Missouri Task Force 1 witnessed something else.
"I saw a lot of hope in people," Schloegel said.
North Carolinian's had hope that a community from 900 miles away came to help.
"I think they have an expectation that they're not going to be alone in struggling like that for long," Schloegel said.
Hope is a powerful feeling that Schloegel says KCFD took back home to Kansas City.
"I still see us as a nation being able to come together and help each other out," he said.
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