(WPRI) — Hope Valley resident Rick Bawden hasn't seen his family in more than a week — and he's not sure when he'll be returning home.

That's because Bawden, who works as a terminal manager for Roberts Energy, has been down south fueling up thousands of utility vehicles working to restore electricity to those impacted by Hurricane Helene.

"I was told I would be there 'for an extended period of time,'" Bawden said. "They don't give you a time frame of how long it's going to last. It just lasts as long as it takes."

"It's staggering the amount of equipment we've seen," he added.

Bawden has already brought fuel to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sites set up in South Carolina and Georgia. He's currently in Virginia with other terminal managers awaiting his next assignment, which he believes will be in North Carolina.

"What we do is we provide a fuel line," Bawden explained. "Then when the linesmen come in with their trucks, they pull up next to our trucks and we fill them up. That way there the next morning they're ready to go."

Bawden described some of the devastation he's seen as looking "like a warzone."

"Some people just lost everything," Bawden said.

This is not the first time Bawden, a volunteer firefighter and experienced long-haul truck driver, has been tapped to assist with recovery efforts. He also ventured to New Orleans back in 2021 to fill up utility trucks in Hurricane Ida's wake.

"That was a 10-day stretch," Bawden recalled.

Though he's focused on relief efforts for Hurricane Helene, he expects to also assist those impacted by Hurricane Milton as well.

"It's a strong possibility," he said, adding that other Roberts Energy trucks have already been sent to Florida. "But even though you're away from your family, you count your blessings. We don't have to go through this [personally], but we are here to help."

Disclaimer: Rick Bawden is digital content producer Sarah Doiron's father-in-law.