BEVERLY — When Jess Cranney traveled to Tennessee as a member of the Massachusetts Canine Response Team, she wasn’t prepared for what she was about to see.
Virtually half the town of Jonesborough had been washed away in the floodwaters created by Hurricane Helene. The images are stuck in her mind — the front door of a home hanging 15 feet high in a tree; a car in the middle of a tomato field; a father and son shoveling mud out of their living room window.
“The path of devastation was incredible,” Cranney said.
Cranney, who lives in Beverly, talked about her experience after returning last week from a five-day rescue mission by the all-volunteer Massachusetts Canine Response Team. Cranney joined the team in 2023 and has volunteered in canine rescue and recovery for 11 years. Her role usually involves searching for missing children or lost hikers or assisting at a crime scene. This was her first time responding to a disaster.
The team, which consisted of seven people and eight canines, was asked by the local sheriff’s department to search for two missing people.
Cranney and her dog, Bowyer, a black Labrador who is certified as both as “live find” dog and a “human remains detection” dog, helped scour a 300-acre area along the banks of Nolichucky River, which rose 42 feet in some areas and wiped out homes, roads and bridges. They also searched a massive tomato field whose crops were under two to four feet of silt.
The search area was a debris field of uprooted trees, mud, personal belongings like cell phones, even a chest of drawers still filled with clothes. At one point, Bowyer went through the sun roof of the washed-up vehicle to search it, Cranney said.
The area was also littered with propane tanks, household cleaners, plastics and decaying animals. After each search, both the dogs and dog-handlers were decontaminated. They also had to keep an eye out for black bears.
Cranney’s most indelible image is the one of the father, who was in his 70s, and son shoveling mud out of a window of the home that has been in their family since 1862. They were also trying to pry up the floorboards to get rid of mold.
Despite their dire circumstances, the men kept saying how lucky they were to have survived.
“It struck me that they lost every single possession they ever had and were telling us how fortunate they are,” Cranney said.
She and the team were aware of some of the negative reactions that FEMA rescue teams had encountered. But she said the locals treated her team with gratitude and kindness.
A local church served them breakfast and dinner. A nonprofit brought them a hot lunch every day out in the field. A veterinarian volunteered to check on the dogs at the end of every day. A mobile pet grooming service stepped up to decontaminate them.
“It’s the most support we’ve ever seen,” Cranney said. “I know this area will rebuild because of how resilient the townspeople are. But it will take a long time.”
Cranney emphasized that FEMA also did extensive searches in the area.
Members of the Massachusetts Canine Response Team pay their own travel expenses to deployments and training seminars. The canines must undergo 16 hours of training per month and are certified by the International Police Work Dog Association. Cranney has two other dogs, Jackson, who just retired as a search canine, and Welles, a puppy who has started training.
Cranney, 34, said she would not be able to serve on the search-and-rescue team without the supporter of her employer, Windover Construction. She said she has been inspired to help out by her family, which operates Cranney Self Storage in Danvers, where she worked for 10 years.
During Hurricanes Harvey and Sandy, her now late mother set up a donation drop-off at the business and her brother drove supplies to affected areas.
“They felt it was important do everything we could possibly do to help these communities,” Cranney said.
Staff Writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at pleighton@salemnews.com, or on Twitter at @heardinbeverly.