More than 100 nursing home residents — most with dementia — were hoisted onto helicopters and flown across 80 miles of North Carolina’s damaged interior on Tuesday.
They’d been stuck in Burnsville since Friday, when Helene hit the southeastern United States with a wrath that hasn’t been seen in some areas for more than a century.
Volunteer pilots made about 20 trips in their own helicopters — from two-seaters to Black Hawks — flying northwest from Hickory to rescue 76 residents in Yancey House, Mitchell House and a few others nearby…