A North Carolina man’s life was flipped upside down in an instant when his wife died as a result of significant flooding caused by Hurricane Helene, leaving him and their four children alone.
“Suddenly I heard something. It sounded like an explosion. “And me and my wife went running through the house, and the back door was shattered,” Jamie Guinn told Fox News Digital over the phone. “So I ran to go to the garage to get something to block the garage off and our garage was gone.”
On Friday, September 27, Guinn was inside his Minneapolis, North Carolina, home with his wife, Melissa, and their 8-year-old son, River, sheltering in place when chaos broke out. Guinn stated that their house overlooked the river and that they had been watching it all morning until it collapsed completely.
“It sounded like a cannon going off.” “I just remember being crushed by the house falling all around me,” Guinn explained. “I recall screaming for my small boy and hearing him scream. And somehow, we dug through the home, which had collapsed practically into the river, and I found him.”
Guinn stated that he was able to save his son and looked up to find his wife sitting on top of their home, which was the last time he saw her alive.
“My wife was still up on the top, where the house was. She yelled at me, ‘Babe, watch out!’ Guinn reminisced, “I grabbed my little boy and threw him on my back, thinking it was another slide, and by the time I turned back around to try to make myself alert, she was gone.”
“I rushed to shout for her and couldn’t find my little boy. “He turned around and told me, ‘Daddy, I think mommy’s gone,'” Guinn said. “We kept yelling and hollering for her, but no one ever found her. At the time, I had no idea if any of the houses remained or had been destroyed. It was all blurry.”
Guinn and his son were able to find refuge in a close neighbor’s house. Guinn said he had a shattered back and an infected wound on his head, but that losing Melissa was the worst suffering he could imagine.
“She was my very best buddy. I don’t know how I’ll make it without her. We spent each day together. She was interested in everything I did, just like everyone else,” Guinn said. “Just going from having that person in your life every day to gone in the blink of an eye, it just shows how often you might take for granted being with someone.”
Guinn stated that he and Melissa had been together for 17 years and were only weeks away from celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary. He claimed he proposed around Halloween, and they had traditionally exchanged small gifts each year.
“We always say I love you during the day, which we have done consistently. And every time I would write back, ‘Love you more,’ so this year, I got her a little plaque, and it just outlines a whole lot of reasons why that means,” Guinn explained. “She was the absolute greatest mother and wife we could have all even asked for.”
Guinn said he is still in astonishment that Helene impacted his neighborhood so severely, something no one expected.
“The amount by which the river water increased was beyond comprehension. It’s difficult to describe what that felt like. It’s something that shouldn’t happen here. “It does not happen here,” Guinn stated. “We don’t know where I don’t even know where we begin to start picking up pieces from after this.”
Despite the pain and devastation, Guinn said it’s been incredible to watch his community pull together for one another throughout this tragedy.
“As much as I hate to admit it, I believe our community is stronger than I have ever seen it. Everyone has always been there for each other, but this degree of support has truly blown my mind. “The outpouring is just, I don’t know how to explain it,” Guinn stated.
Guinn’s friends and family have started a GoFundMe campaign to aid with medical expenditures and other financial concerns.
Hurricane Helene killed at least 232 people when it ripped through the Southeast, with 72 of them from Buncombe County. Hundreds of people are still missing as a result of the deadliest hurricane to hit the continental United States since Katrina in 2005.
