Amid the 180 de*ad following Hurricane Helene, a Texas woman has shared her story of devastation after her parents and nephew drowned outside their Asheville home.
Jessica Drye Turner says she begged for someone to rescue her family members stranded on their rooftop in Asheville amid rising floodwaters.
“They are watching 18-wheelers and cars floating by,” Turner wrote in an urgent Facebook post on Friday. “They’ve called 911 but they aren’t the only ones needing rescue. This is definitely a moment when faith is all you have.”
But in a follow-up message Saturday, Turner said help had not arrived in time to save her parents, both in their 70s, and her 7-year-old nephew, Micah. The house collapsed and the three drowned. Megan Drye, Micah’s mother, survived the collapse.
“I cannot convey in words the sorrow, heartbreak and devastation my sisters and I are going through,” she wrote.
“Mama was clinging onto Micah and daddy was struggling to hold onto Megan,” Turner said in an update on Wednesday. “He kept panicking and pushing her under. She had hold of a tree and was trying to hold on to him. The water took him.”
Turner says Micah’s body was found 1/4 of a mile past where they found his mother, Megan, alive.
An online fundraiser has been set up for Megan, who “lived a mother’s worst nightmare.”
Over $130,000 has been raised, surpassing the $120,000 goal.
“Words cannot express how much your prayers and support have carried us through this time,” the GoFundMe says. “We have experienced miracle after miracle in her surviving the unimaginable nightmare of losing her parents and 7yo son right before her eyes, her being rescued after 3 hours in the water, to the precious doctors and nurses who took such good care of her as she first faced her new reality, to us being able to get to her even though WNC was completely shut down, to finally being together to begin healing.”
