A member of Company E of the 130th Aviation unit of the N.C. National Guard — and longtime National Guard cook — he went to Tarboro when Hurricane Floyd hit. And he stayed, working straight through a month of days without a day off.

And when he decided to come home ...

Well, what was he going to come home in?

He didn’t have his car.

He didn’t have a military vehicle.

But everybody’s grateful to the cook.

“Sarge,” the guys told him, “you don’t have to worry about a ride.”

And he didn’t.

The Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Department delivered him to the National Guard armory behind the Rowan County Airport where he’d left his car when Floyd was pounding the coast.

With him came a plaque of appreciation from Edgecombe County and its sheriff’s department, as well as letters from all the other North Carolina law enforcement agencies that had people working with flood destruction in the area. He also has a letter and a hat and a tape that says, “I like the smell of fresh handcuffs in the morning” from Sheriff Gerald Hege of Davidson County.

He’s been promised a letter from Gov. Jim Hunt.

And he hopes he gets it. All those letters will go with others on his walls, “so I can show my nieces and nephews that this is what you ought to do — help people.”

He’s always tried hard to help people.

In the Guard for about 23 years, he’s been a truck driver, in communications, supply, all kinds of things, but he’s cooked, off and on, for about 10 years. He was the Christmas dinner cook back in 1997 when the 1454th Transportation Company in Concord went to Bosnia as peacekeepers.

He had transferred to the 1454th and volunteered to go to Bosnia, but was left behind after he finished months of training with the unit because it had too many volunteers already.

But he wanted to be part of it, so he quit his job and went to work on the Christmas dinner, spending three weeks soliciting donations and food and then two days and a night cooking it. Even Maj. Gen. Gerald Rudisill, adjutant general in charge of all Guard units in the state, heaped praise on him as high as the servings on those Christmas dinner plates.

By the time the 130th Aviation unit sent Guardsmen to Kuwait, he was a member of that unit and cooked the goodbye dinner.

And everybody was happy Tom Brewton showed up to give a little help in the Tarboro flood area.

He called Wednesday night to find out what was happening.

“I’d been tracking the storm,” he says, “and they said ‘yes, we need you down here.’ So as the hurricane hit, I was on my way. The first week and a half, I helped out with generators and all kinds of stuff. I didn’t plan to go cook. It just happened one night. They needed someone to cook some donated steaks, and then I volunteered to cook. I saw they needed it.

“I was preparing the meals so every law enforcement person who was working down there could eat — and everybody who was hungry. By the time one meal got finished, it was time to start the next meal.”

The kitchen was part of the headquarters set up for all law enforcement working the flood at the new sheriff’s facility just outside of Tarboro, and Brewton took what help he could get and directed activities at the stoves.

“I received 10 tractor trailer loads of food,” he says. “I used some for cooking — I fed over 27,000 meals — but most of it I gave away. It was pretty nice. I enjoyed it. And they about gave me the key to the county.”

Of course, he loved it.

Now he’s back at his regular job as a salesman at the Bass Pro Shop Outdoor World at Concord Mills and nobody complained that he was gone so long. Matter of fact, they took his picture with his plaque for the company paper.

And next time?

If there’s an emergency, he’ll go.

“No telling where,” he says. “I do whatever the need is.”

Community Foundation gift

Donors to the Salisbury Community Foundation Inc. have contributed nearly $150,000 to assist victims of Hurricane Floyd, the state’s largest-ever natural disaster.

The Foundation sent a letter asking its donors to help following a request from the governor’s office for assistance for flood victims.

“While it is not the practice of the Foundation to present a philanthropic opportunity in a mass mailing, we find an exception is merited given the severity of the circumstances, “ said James G. Whitton, president. “The response of our donors has been quite remarkable, and we are honored to be able to assist our neighbors to the East with our support.”

Salisbury Community Foundation was established in 1944 by a group of concerned citizens with the common interest of making Salisbury and Rowan County a better place for all to live. It operates as a supporting organization of the Foundation For The Carolinas, which is based in Charlotte.

Help tops $10 million

Donations to the N.C. Hurricane Floyd Disaster Relief Fund have topped $10 million, says Gov. Jim Hunt, and are providing help for pressing needs from ongoing flooding in eastern North Carolina.

The fund, established by Hunt on Sept. 17, the day after Hurricane Floyd hit the coast, has received $10.2 million in checks and cash and more than $263,000 in credit card donations. It has already distributed $6 million to 30 counties, which is allocating the money based on local needs.

The allocations are based on criteria established by the governor’s office.

“The prompt and generous response we have received from all over North Carolina, and the nation and other parts of the world, is deeply gratifying,” Hunt said. But it is only one source of help.

“We’re going to keep working every day to secure federal assistance for our recovery effort and to assess needs that the state must address in our recovery response to the three hurricanes we’ve experienced this year.”