As exclusively revealed by Raw Story this week, the apparent threat was strong enough to prompt one state medical assistance team to evacuate a field clinic in rural Yancey County — raising questions about potential danger to federal and state disaster responders that still linger, amid another hurricane season.
According to a FEMA contract worker assigned to the team who spoke to Raw Story on condition of anonymity, the proximate cause of the Yancey County evacuation was an alarming report of snipers on rooftops and a social media post threatening government workers.
Then, according to the FEMA worker, an encounter with three unfamiliar men asking about the team’s sleeping accommodations tipped the decision to pack up and leave, under cover of night.
“There was some rumors going around… that some of the militia guys up there was going to provoke violence on FEMA employees,” Jerry Zimmerman, a paramedic who went home prior to the evacuation, told Raw Story.
“To the extent of that violence, I don’t know. Which is one of the reasons, to my understanding, why they decided to evacuate. It was becoming very violent on that site.”
Zimmerman said Dr. Tripp Winslow, medical director for the state Office of Emergency Medical Services, called him after the evacuation and described an atmosphere of hostility.
Winslow declined to comment. But others said suspicions centered on Savage Freedoms, a volunteer disaster response group composed largely of former and current Special Forces operators.
Such suspicions were based in part on the FEMA worker’s assertion that a man who asked about sleeping accommodations wore a shirt featuring the group’s insignia.
Savage Freedoms’ leader, Adam Smith, said the group had a small team about 20 miles away from the Yancey County site, but said he didn’t believe his group prompted the evacuation.
“The question of whether Savage Freedoms was on site? Absolutely,” the FEMA worker said. “Were they threatening people? Unknown.”
A spokesperson for the NC Department of Health and Human Services said the team left the site on Oct. 12 due to an unspecified “concern.” Sheriff Shane Hilliard told Raw Story state officials reported the matter.
“When we went down there, we saw no sign of the militia,” Hilliard said. “We saw the same thing we had seen before: Citizens and volunteers carrying firearms in a safe and secure manner for their protection.”
‘A militia threat’
In western North Carolina, many residents routinely carry guns for self-protection. After Helene, in many communities, groups of veterans were first on the ground. An array of groups wielded heavy weaponry and tactical gear, with varying degrees of expertise.
By the time the state medical team arrived at Big Creek Free Will Baptist Church in Yancey County on Oct. 8, a team led by Nathaniel Kavakich, a former Marine Corps machine gunner from the Pittsburgh area, was already on the ground.
“I know there was guys that were kind of overbearing; they were armed with AR-15s and they had plate carriers visible,” Marlon Jonnaert, a Marine Corps veteran who used a special radio to help land helicopters at the site, told Raw Story.
“That’s legal, whether or not that looks threatening. That’s the gray zone challenge that they did not know how to handle.”
“Gray zone” is a military strategy term that, according to a 2022 article by the Atlantic Council, describes “gradualist campaigns by state and non-state actors that combine non-military and quasi-military tools and fall below the threshold of armed conflict.”
Representatives of DHHS and NC Emergency Management did not respond to a question about whether they reported concerns about potential for violence at the Yancey County site to law enforcement.
The NC State Bureau of Investigation did not receive any request to investigate alleged militia threats against state and federal medical personnel in Yancey County, a spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the FBI Charlotte Division told Raw Story the agency “does not comment whether a specific person, agency, or organization contacts us,” adding: “I can confirm we worked with multiple law enforcement partners in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.”
Jonnaert said that around the time of the state medical team’s evacuation, a member of the Yancey County Emergency Operations Center called a local fire chief to relay a warning about “a militia threat that included Big Creek.”
Jonnaert said veterans and others at the Big Creek site tried to identify the source of the threat. Jonnaert also said his Marine Corps experience included a deployment to Somalia, where Marines received actionable tips from the FBI about enemy targets. The absence of any such tip in Yancey County convinced him there wasn’t much substance to the rumors of militia threats.
“I figured, ‘Yeah, the FBI would tip these guys off,’” he said. “I think the [Department of Justice] would be very interested if there was a capital-M militia threat against government employees.”
However, comments by Kavakich, the leader of the veterans group at the Big Creek Church, confirm a climate of intimidation and even echo some details in the report that prompted the evacuation.
Kavakich declined to speak to Raw Story — but described the group’s deployment in Yancey County in a podcast spanning almost two and a half hours.
He returned to the church, he said, from an outing to canvas residents to determine their needs. At the church, he noticed a change of mood.
“It’s like, ‘Wow, my baseline of these people, they’re super nice and receptive to us,’” he said. “And then they come in and you’re like, ‘Okay, why the f--- are everyone wearing plate carriers and, like, not making eye contact or talking to people?’ That kind of stuff, there was a distinct change in the way the winds were blowing, if that makes sense.
“FEMA and state and locals were trying to battle-track — there’s actual good groups there that want to help out … But then there were other people that were running around with plate carriers and rifles barking orders.
“Their mindset was, ‘I’m going to be there to help, because I’m an asset.’ But what they don’t realize is when they were doing that, they were pissing off the locals and making the locals feel uncomfortable.”
Kavakich said he encountered a group telling him they wanted “to have snipers conducting reconnaissance missions on [main supply routes]. It’s like, ‘Dude, you’re re---ded.’ Go … drown yourself in the Cane River.”
One member of the medical team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on the night before the team ended its deployment, an unidentified group pulled up jeeps and trained spotlights on the medical tent and supply trailer. Members of the same group rode around on four-wheelers, flipping off the medical workers, they said.
"What was hard was the random people dressed with two, three guns riding around on four-wheelers like they owned the place doing security patrols."
Stanly County Sheriff Jeff Crisco, who volunteered in Yancey County through the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association disaster relief program, told Raw Story he encountered an armed group from Louisiana.
“We were unfortunately [doing] body recovery, rescuing people,” Crisco said. “It wasn’t traditional, you’re-wearing-your-body-armor-and-whatnot. Yes, we were armed, but it was just our handguns. They were coming with body armor and their rifles. It definitely sparked some concern with the citizens there.”
Evan Stern, a paramedic in neighboring Mitchell County, told Raw Story locals felt annoyed by some outsiders.
“This is western North Carolina. Most people are covertly armed as a daily practice. Many people, you might classify as paramilitary. That kind of activity is not especially unusual here. It was the presence of outsiders with that affect that were carrying firearms for no good reason, was the issue. Suburbanites looking for a way to play out their fantasies.”
‘Here to hurt?’
When civilian groups make an ostentatious display of military gear, whether there’s an actual threat or not is almost beside the point, said Sam Jackson, an assistant professor at the University at Albany who studies anti-government extremism.
“There’s a case where, even if the threats aren’t real, people showing up with big guns and tactical vests and things like that are certainly going to intimidate folks, especially if these folks coming in who are heavily armed aren’t known to the local communities,” Jackson told Raw Story.
“Who the hell are these people with guns coming into our communities? Are they here to help? Are they here to hurt? Who knows?”
It’s indisputable that fear of armed actors made things worse in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, Jackson said.
“We had relief efforts that were slowed down or had to entirely pause while those relief providers figured out what the threats were on the ground and whether they were actually real, and whether they needed to lock down because a militia was coming," he said.
“All of those things keep those relief workers from actually going out and interacting with people who need their help, providing resources, all of those sorts of things.”
