‘Can’t put a price tag on that’: Ohio dispatchers on Hurricane Helene relief mission recruit 4-legged friend

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WJW) — In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene , which caused devastating flooding in Asheville, North Carolina , and the surrounding area of the Blue Ridge Mountains, emergency dispatchers from Bedford-based Chagrin Valley Dispatch were part of a group from Ohio that volunteered to provide relief for dispatchers in the Carolina destruction zone.

“The calls that we’re taking are just unbelievable, it’s horrible what we’re hearing: the stories about people missing, deceased; you know, kids looking for their parents,” Chagrin Valley Dispatch Director Nick DiCicco told FOX 8 News via Zoom from Asheville.

DiCicco said a member of the Ohio’s Telecommunications Emergency Response Task Force or TERT was recently on the way to a store in Asheville to pick up supplies and saw a distraught man on the side of the road who was desperately trying to find homes for a litter of six puppies that had nothing to eat.

“He broke down in tears, saying that he lost everything he had, his home; you know, he had no money,” said DiCicco.

The chance meeting with the hurricane victim inspired the Ohio dispatchers to find homes for five of the puppies, but there was one they could not part with.

They decided that the dog, a Bernedoodle mix named Noah-Ash, in honor of flood-ravaged Asheville, would become a special goodwill ambassador in the dispatch center.

“You bring a dog into the mix and as silly as it sounds, it brightens everybody’s day. You’re smiling again instead of crying and it’s just a good morale booster,” said DiCicco.

The puppy has made such an impression on the Ohio dispatchers that when their mission of mercy is completed and they return to the Buckeye State, Noah-Ash will be with them. The plan is to train the puppy as a certified therapy dog, who will be a personal pet for one of the dispatchers, and then accompany the team whenever they volunteer to serve in other disaster zones.

“If we can brighten up somebody’s day, even if it’s for 30 seconds — as you can see, you can’t put a price tag on that,” DiCicco told us.

The team from Ohio originally volunteered to assist dispatchers in Asheville for two weeks, and their mission has now been extended for another two weeks until Oct. 30.

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