News

County's emergency manager is Hero of the Year for Helene leadership

Jimmy Brissie poses with state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom, a North Carolina flag that flew over the Legislative Building and a resolution.

By Bill Moss, Published: September 6, 2025

Jimmy Brissie knew.

Before he was shaving, before he was an upperclassman at East Henderson High School, before he was an Eagle Scout — motto: Be Prepared — Jimmy wanted to answer the call.

At age 15, he started as a junior member of the Henderson County Rescue Squad. As he grew into a young man, he became a certified EMT, then a paramedic. He’s served as an instructor for many specialized emergencies, including mountain search and rescue. He worked his way up to become the county’s emergency services director.

So last Sept. 26, Brissie had been training all his life for what would roar across the South Carolina line into Green River, Etowah and Blantyre the next morning.

“I was there that day,” said Rebecca McCall, who was county commission chair when Helene hit. “I was sitting across the table from him (at a news conference the day before the storm hit) and I saw the concern in his eyes. I knew he was fearful of how bad it might get, but I don't think even he realized how bad it would get after it hit.”

No one did. Only someone who lived through the Great Flood of 1916 — caused by a remarkably similar sequence of days of soaking rain followed by an epic deluge and hurricane winds — could have imagined what was about to happen.

But Jimmy Brissie was in charge, it was better than it might have been. Everyone made a hullabaloo about Jimmy last Monday night when the Elks Lodge 1616 publicly named him Hero of the Year, an honor seconded by the county board of commissioners, the North Carolina General Assembly and the state’s two U.S. senators.

Tommy Laughter wore two hats. An aide to U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, he’s also an Elk.

The Elks honored Brissie “for what he did during Helene — what he did before Helene, what he during Helene, and what he did in the days after,” Laughter said. “He prepared us.”

That was the Boy Scout in Jimmy, bolstered by years of on-the-ground emergency response.

“He told all of us what to expect,” Laughter said. “He told us that we're expecting a loss of property and possibly life, we're going to see flooding, the expectations are grim, but we have a plan in place to do everything the right way. The day of the storm, everything that he told us, unfortunately, came true. It was a day and a disaster that I hope for the love of God that none of us ever have to go through again.

“His first responders were out there rescuing people — cutting trees off of houses, cutting trees off a road so other first responders could come and save lives. In the days after, county staff and his first responders did welfare checks on people that couldn't get ahold of loved ones. He sought to get supplies for people that were in need of things like water and food — the things that we take so for granted.”

A week before Helene devastated the Blue Ridge Mountains, Brissie had a completely different event on his personal calendar.

“Not many people know this, but he was supposed to get married that weekend, and he had to put off his wedding,” Commissioner McCall said. “He would not leave the EMS building. His fiancée finally had to bring him some clothes because people were complaining, but he stayed there. He only left to go to certain areas that he needed to check on but he stayed there and he led the team. I don't know how many countless hours he lost of sleep, but I saw it. I saw it all happen.”

Brissie credited the county’s leadership and the many dozens of people who stepped up in the days and weeks after Helene.

“Everyone’s mentioned team, and that’s really what it is,” he said. “It’s all about a team —our firefighters, our law enforcement officers, our telecommunicators, our rescue squad members, our school teachers, our human resources employees.

“It was all about a team during Helene, and that team starts with the board’s leadership,” he said, praising the board for having made investments in personnel, equipment, communications needed to respond to the unprecedented emergency.

“I have no doubt that lives were saved by all those team members,” Brissie said. “At one point, Mr. Mitchell (the county manager) said everybody in Henderson County government was in emergency management. But it didn’t stop there. It was also neighbors and family members — the community coming together as a whole.

“I’ve been very blessed to have tremendous leadership from the board, senior leadership of the county manager, assistant county manager, but most importantly, I’ve been able to surround myself by folks a lot smarter than I am. I thank y’all for the recognition. It means a lot, but this is for everybody in public safety and emergency services — the work that they did.”