7-year old boy, both grandparents drown in Helene despite online plea for help

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (Gray News) – Three family members in Asheville, North Carolina drowned in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene despite another family member’s social media plea to rescue them.

Posting from Texas on Friday, Jessica Drye Turner begged for someone to rescue her family members stranded on their rooftop in Asheville surrounded by rising flood waters.

“They are watching 18 wheelers and cars floating by,” Turner wrote in an urgent Facebook post.

Her parents, both in their 70s, along with her 7-year-old nephew Micah and his mother Megan Drye (Turner’s sister), were trapped on the roof of their house.

But in a follow-up message, which became widely circulated on social media on Saturday, Turner said help had not arrived in time to save her parents and her 7-year-old nephew.

The roof had collapsed and the three drowned.

“I cannot convey in words the sorrow, heartbreak and devastation my sisters and I are going through nor imagine the pain before us,” she wrote.

Her sister was also swept away by flood waters but survived, thanks to getting caught up on some debris that kept her head above water. After three more hours, she was rescued.

Jeff Muenstermann and his wife Lisa, friends of Turner’s, told The Associated Press on Saturday they had spoken to Turner after she posted the initial plea for help. At her request, they messaged members of The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, where they all attend, to pray for the family’s safety back in North Carolina.

“I just thought they were going to be rescued,” Jeff Muenstermann said. “I asked everybody to pray and they did. And then a couple hours later, her husband called me, completely distraught and said ... we lost them. They all drowned.”

Muenstermann said Turner and her husband flew to North Carolina on Saturday to be with Turner’s sister, the only survivor at the house.

“We talked to her last night and we talked to her again today and she’s trying to be real strong,” he said of Turner.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for the family to pay for funeral expenses and help Megan Drye with her recovery after losing everything.

The page describes her survival as a “miracle” but that she has lived “a mother’s worst nightmare” losing her son and her parents.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene has reached more than 160 as of Wednesday morning.

Copyright 2024 Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.