On a humanitarian mission: State Rep. Steve Weir flies to Carolina disaster zone to assist search for missing hurricane victims.

State Representative Steve Weir will be off the campaign trail for a few days to join other helicopter pilots as they fly spotters around the Asheville, North Carolina, area look for the bodies of the missing in the continuing aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Weir left Connecticut early Sunday morning for the six-hour helicopter flight for the staging area at a Harley Davidson facility in Asheville. The Hebron Republican is traveling with National Guard CW3 John Behuniak. They will fly rescuers and their cadaver-detecting dogs to areas that cannot easily be reached by motor vehicles or on foot. It is dangerous but essential work that requires skilled helicopter pilots like Weir.

Weir has answered the call. He texted this morning as he prepared to take his first team into the mountains. It is, Weir wrote, “sobering to realize this has gone beyond search and rescue and now” has become a search and recover mission.

Published October 20, 2024.