Moment Hurricane Helene floods swept away missing middle school teacher’s home with her inside, as death toll surges

The home of a North Carolina high school teacher was swept away during the chaos of Hurricane Helene, which killed at least 130 people.

Kim Ashby was last seen floating along the Elk River in Elk Park, North Carolina, after her vacation home was torn from its foundation by flooding.

She went to the property on Friday to collect her belongings when the water began to rise, but was swept away before she could leave.

Ashby’s stricken family have not heard from her since.

Elk Park is part of the Blue Ridge Mountains and is located 75 north of the city of Asheville, which was also decimated by water and mud after the storm moved along the coast on Friday.

Asheville had blossomed in recent years and had become one of the coolest cities in America, famous for its culture and food scene.

But locals — some of whom moved to Asheville in the belief it would be safe from climate change — are now unable to find a hot meal as the city approaches crisis point.

On Monday, WRAL reported that nearly all Asheville residents had remained offline and were struggling to reach their loved ones due to a lack of cell service.

Their struggles pale in comparison to the heartache inflicted on the family of missing teacher Ashby, with at least 130 dead and 600 missing.

Ashby’s loved ones said she had to cling to a mattress as her home was pulled into the water.

Ashby’s daughter Jessica Meidinger said her mother’s husband, Rod, opened the front door of their home because they knew they were in danger.

She told me WRAL: ‘He went outside to see where the water was at that moment, and saw that a quarter of the house had already been washed away. As soon as he saw that, he ran in and told her to get dressed.”

Meidinger said that before the couple finished getting dressed, the force of rising water from the Elk River carried the house away while they were still inside.

She added: “They managed to climb onto a mattress and just held on. They hit an embankment or a bend, and the house basically collapsed on them.

“And they started, I think they were able to grab each other and float. At one point they were hit by a tree and became separated in the water.”

Rod was found two miles from their home on Saturday and is recovering, while Ashby remains missing.

The search continues for the beloved teacher who taught at SanLee Middle School in Sanford, North Carolina.

Christian Chaney, principal of the school, said: “Tears have been shed. We miss you. And we want you to get back here safely. We are confident that this will happen, and it will happen.”

Meanwhile, roads around Asheville and North Carolina have been so badly damaged by flooding in Helene that some rescuers have been forced to use mules to help.

In a post on Facebook, the Mountain Mule Packer Ranch said it had used the animals to provide essential supplies, including insulin.

Mike Toberer told the Associated Press he decided to take a dozen animals with him to help reach the mountainous areas, some of which had their roads washed out.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper toured the Asheville area and later met with workers distributing meals.

He said, “This has been an unprecedented storm to impact western North Carolina. It requires an unprecedented response.”

While Mayor Esther Mannheimer told it NewsNation the once thriving city was at “a point of despair.”

“The roads have been washed away, the bridges have been washed away and on top of that our communications have been wiped out,” she said.

“Most people have poor cell phone service at best, and the hard-to-reach areas have nothing. We are still in crisis mode. This is a very serious situation.”

According to Manheimer, about 600 people are still missing in Asheville and President Biden will fly over the city on Wednesday to survey the damage.

Images of the destruction caused by the hurricane reveal a wasteland of splintered homes, crushed cargo containers, mud-covered highways and collapsed communications lines.

Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns are built in valleys, making them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding.

Moreover, the ground was already saturated before Helene arrived, said Christiaan Patterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“By the time Helene came into the Carolinas, we already had rain, on top of more rain,” Patterson said.

Climate change has exacerbated the conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones, sometimes within hours.

Helene’s death toll continues to rise as authorities in six states, including North Carolina, slowly work their way through decimated communities.

Helene tore into Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane on Thursday before quickly moving into Georgia.

It left a trail of destruction as it tore apart homes, tore up roads and severed communications lines.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday that at least 25 people have died in his state, including a firefighter who responded to emergency calls during the storm and a mother and her 1-month-old twins who were killed by a falling tree.

South Carolina has reported at least 30 deaths, making Helene the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the state since Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989, killing 35 people.

And in North Carolina’s Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, 40 people have died, the county manager said.

The sheriff’s office in Pinellas County, Florida, published a grim litany of the nine people left dead there so far, almost all of whom were found in their homes.

Nearly all appeared to have drowned, while the others were buried under the rubble.

The government, states and localities are all now embarking on a massive recovery effort as people are still without water or power.

President Biden told reporters at the White House: “There is nothing like asking, ‘Are my husband, wife, son, daughter, mother, father alive?

“Many more people will be left without electricity, water, food and communications, and whose homes and businesses will be washed away in an instant. I want them to know we’re not leaving until the job is done.”

Damage estimates ranged from $15 billion to more than $100 billion, insurers and forecasters said this weekend, as water systems, communications and critical transportation routes were hit.

Property damage and lost economic output will become more apparent as officials assess the destruction.