Tennessee Guard provides drinking water to Hurricane Helene victims

MOUNTAIN CITY, Tenn. – Guardsmen with the Tennessee Army National Guard’s A Company, 169th Divisional Sustainment Support Battalion, deployed a tactical water purification system Oct. 6 to provide drinking water to communities affected by Hurricane Helene.

Set up in Johnson County behind Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, the TWPS purifies water from Roan Creek and distributes it to Mountain City, Elk Mills and Poga residents.

“We chose this location because it is near a population that was severely affected by the hurricane and is close to the interstate to make it easier to distribute,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Richards, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the TWPS team.

In environments without potable water, the TWPS is a quick solution. It can purify 1,500 gallons of water per hour from a freshwater source.

“A lot of the water lines and local supply chains have been damaged, thus cutting off usable drinking water,” said Richards.

This same system was last used by the Tennessee National Guard in a 2023 deployment to Syria for Operation Inherent Resolve. Over 765,000 gallons of water were purified during that deployment.

Richards leads five Soldiers who operate the TWPS. For the last week, they distributed water from mobile water tanks.

“The Soldiers I brought with me really got into the fight quickly,” said Richards. “From the time we got boots on ground to when we were able to distribute water was about half an hour.”

In just two hours, they distributed more than 1,800 gallons of water to the local population. Now, the team is filtering and providing clean water, at a greater volume, to those in need instead of bringing in more water tanks.

“With all the devastation we’ve had in East Tennessee, this system is most capable of meeting the demand,” said Richards.

Richard’s team plans on supplying water to the Elk Mills-Poga Volunteer Fire Department next.