GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Search and rescue crews from Grand Rapids have returned home after their team saved dozens of people trapped in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene, including two on vacation from the Muskegon area.

Michigan Task Force 1 rescued 31 people who were stranded by the floodwaters.

The devastation in the mountains of North Carolina was so severe that it surprised even the most experienced search and rescue crews.

“Our hardest hit area was a downtown area. …Kind of compare it to like maybe Saugatuck or Grand Haven. Basically take half the town or half the mercantile shops and they’re just gone,” said Dean England, a search team manager and former Walker firefighter. “It’s unreal. Worst thing I’ve ever seen in 30 years in the service.”

England helped save two people visiting from the Muskegon area.

“The female was very apprehensive about getting in the raft and going across the ragging river so I just equated it (to), ‘Have you ever been to Michigan’s Adventure before?’ And the Michigan’s Adventure clicked. I said, ‘You’re just gonna go to a raft ride with us and we’ll get you to safety,'” England said.

The 19 members of the swift water rescue and EMS team had to operate in remote mountain locations.

“We’d drive across bridges to try and get into some of the areas that we were operating and there’s debris piles that are on both sides… Total houses that are just slammed up against there,” described Josh Veldkamp, a task force member who is also a full-time Grand Rapids Fire Department captain.

Team members had to make sure they stayed safe as the navigated hazards all around them.

“You’d see fridges and propane tanks and cars that were just smashed up against everything. It was just totally and utterly destroyed. Trying to even get there was difficult because you have trees that are over top of the roadway, power poles that were snapped off with wires that were laying across the road,” Veldkamp said.

Crews searched 842 buildings and took part in three helicopter missions alongside the U.S. Coast Guard.

“I think North Carolina got hit a little harder than they anticipated. We ended up coming in right into the middle of it, so we just had to be flexible,” rescue squad officer Curtis Walsh said.

The community that lost so much was beyond grateful for the help the team could provide.

“Still, even with everything they had going on, just their positive attitude — people are opening their businesses to other people in the community, handing out free food and water and coffee and whatever they had to offer,” Walsh said.

With Hurricane Milton in the Gulf of Mexico rated a Category 5, Michigan Task Forces 1 is on standby in case it is needed once again.