NC National Guard Mobilizes In Response To Winter Storm

RALEIGH – The North Carolina National Guard (NCNG) has mobilized resources across eastern, central, and western North Carolina in preparation to assist Emergency Management during this winter storm Fern.

As of Saturday morning, the NCNG has activated approximately 454 personnel and employed 179 vehicles.

This includes:

 NCNG teams equipped with High Mobility Multipurpose Wheel Vehicles capable of traversing hazardous conditions to augment emergency responders.

 Distribution teams to rapidly provide equipment and critical supplies to staging locations, ensuring continuity of communications and a sustained response effort.

 Maintenance and recovery teams capable of assisting the Department of Transportation.

The NCNG is assisting in ways beyond physical space. Protecting and defending North Carolina’s digital infrastructure during natural disasters is priority that has emerged since Hurricane Helene.

“Threat actors will take advantage of individuals and organizations during winter storms. You are more likely to click on text messages or emails that talk about news that’s currently happening around you,” said Sharon Atkins, a Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst with the North Carolina National Guard Cyber Security Response Force. “They know that people are in a vulnerable situation. Emotional stress can be high; power can be down.”

Atkins role with the NCNG CSRF during Winter Storm Fern is to research what the threat actors are doing, their emerging treads and research what is happening to our neighbors to proactively remediate those things in NC before people fall victim to cyber threats.

On ground, NCNG officials have noted that the current NCNG activation to Winter Storm Fern has been one of the largest responses to a statewide disaster since Hurricane Helene devasted Western North Carolina back in 2024.

“The biggest thing across the state is that we are keeping the highway corridors open. That is one of our biggest mission sets, supporting the NC Department of Transportation…so that transportation network stays open,” said Lt. Col. Aaron Youngblood, NCNG J3 Domestic Operations Chief. “Additionally, we are working out in counties and local municipalities just to support the people, anything they really need.”

NCNG will continue to work with North Carolina Emergency Management to monitor weather conditions and provide resources and support to the most impacted locations.