Hurricane Helene victims include young siblings killed by falling tree as they slept
Falling trees and raging floods from Hurricane Helene killed more than 150 people when it struck Florida late last week and then plowed through the Southeast as one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history.
People died in six states: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Among them were two young siblings who died when the family's oak tree crashed into their bedroom, a man and his great-grandson, who died similarly to the children, and a sheriff's deputy who drowned after a dam broke.
Here are some of the stories of the victims:
Seven-year-old Harmony Taylor and her 4-year-old brother, Derrick, were inseparable, their parents Herbert and Crystal Taylor told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They played together, sang Muni Long’s hit R&B ballad “Made for Me" together and slept together, her arm always wrapped around him.
They died together early Friday when Helene's wind and rain toppled the family's giant oak tree and it crashed into their bedroom in Sandersville, a town of 6,000 in central Georgia.
Harmony, nicknamed “Tootbug” by her grandfather, loved to dance and wear dresses and tutus. Her father would take her for rides in his pickup, sometimes to McDonald's for Chicken McNuggets and sweet tea. She would roll down the window and stick her arm into the wind. She would beg her uncle for peppermint Orbit chewing gum.
Derrick loved his Hot Wheel cars and watching "Peppa Pig,” “Blippi” and “Bluey.” He went to gymnastics class, where he would bounce on the trampoline. Autistic, he usually would only eat graham crackers and occasionally grapes or apple sauce.
They will be buried together Sunday in one coffin, a pack of graham crackers and Orbit gum with them. Harmony's arm will be wrapped around her little brother.
Michael and Nora Drye and their seven-year-old grandson Micah Drye died after their home in Asheville, North Carolina, collapsed and they were swept away by the currents.
Megan Drye, the couple's daughter and the boy's mother, said the family was stranded on the roof for hours as Hurricane Helene battered the region. She, too, was swept by the currents and survived.
She told FoxWeather on Tuesday that she thought the family was safe after reaching their roof but that after hours of waiting to be rescued, the house broke apart and collapsed.
“My grief is unfathomable,” she said crying, adding that her faith in God and the prayers her family has been receiving are holding her up.
Drye said she was wearing a Deadpool T-shirt in honor of her son who had planned to dress as the superhero for Halloween.
Mike and Jean Obrist tried to drive to safety on the night of Sept. 27 when they were hit by a wall of turbulent water that rolled over them, their neighbor Gene Poland said.
The couple's daughter, Maureen, was able to climb out the window as the water rushed in and survived, but the Obrists couldn’t make it, said Poland, who helped save people from the rising Nolichucky River in rural east Tennessee.
Maureen Obrist said she and her parents had received a call to evacuate but resisted initially. They reasoned that they had lived there for 40 years and the water usually comes up to the bottom step and then recedes, so it should be fine, he said, recalling her story.
But when the water started rising fast and high, it really scared them, he said.
Rescue teams were still looking for the car the next morning, Poland said. The water was about 10 feet (3 meters) above the cars, so some time passed before they located it.
Besides first responders, Helene also took the lives of members of the same family, as in the case of Stephen Donehoo, 72, and and Izaac Donehoo, his 10-year-old great-grandson. They were pronounced dead after a tree fell on a home in Augusta, according to Richmond County Coroner Mark Bowen.
“Our family lost two wonderful souls to the storm,” Michelle Donehoo, Stephen’s daughter and Izaac’s grandmother, posted on Facebook. She posted a link to a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses.
Sam Carlton said via Facebook that she lost her “little nephew” and “Pops.” She said Izaac would have been 11 in November, and he grew up with her son.
“Aaron grew up with his cousin Izaac ... and those of you who knew Steve knew how amazing his soul was,” Carlton said.
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Associated Press writers Martha Bellisle in Seattle; Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida; Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed.
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