RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) – A pair of siblings are in agony, waiting to find out if their mother who lives in western North Carolina is still alive after Helene ripped through the area, sweeping away her mountain home.
Rod and Kim Ashby started building their dream house in Elk Park, North Carolina, two years ago, with Rod largely building the house with his own two hands. He worked to make sure he accounted for every conceivable threat to the couple’s perfect mountain escape.
“He had markers up on the trees from historical floods, just to kind of see what the previous standings have been. So, he built the house above those points, not thinking it would be even close,” said Chris Meidinger, Kim Ashby’s son.
The Ashbys live in Sanford, where Kim is a middle school math teacher, but when they got the news that Helene was heading for the mountains, they wanted to go up to make sure their dream house and everything precious inside was going to be OK.
“They made it Thursday night. The flooding had not reached the house yet. It was still pretty far away, and they were safe,” said Jessica Meidinger, Kim Ashby’s daughter.
That was the last time the siblings heard from their mother.
Then, in an unimaginable turn of events, they found out the Ashbys’ house had been seen floating down the rising river far from its foundation with the couple inside. The siblings now know the couple had just poured their morning coffee Friday when they noticed the water was getting dangerously high.
“By the time they were getting ready to start evacuating, to get to higher ground, the walls had already started crumbling. The house was immediately swept away. They ran to the back room, got the dogs, got on the bed,” Chris Meidinger said.
The Ashbys were able to get on a mattress as the house started collapsing around them. Going down the river, they were clinging on to each other when they hit a tree.
“That’s what split them apart, and he was not able to hold on to her. There was a tree hanging down, and he was able to grab on to that and get himself out of the water,” Jessica Meidinger said. “He was able to crawl up the mountain to a neighbor’s house, where he was safe. But before doing that, he went up and down the river, and they couldn’t find her. He’s been searching ever since.”
The siblings know Rod Ashby is safe and getting help, but they’re now on day four of waiting to find out if their mom is OK. The couple’s three dogs are also still unaccounted for.
Though the siblings are grateful for the love and support they’re getting right now, they’re asking that people only reach out if they have confirmed news about their mother. They are glued to their phones and keep getting false hope.
“Please keep praying. Please keep thinking, but please don’t reach out unless you have something that’s helpful that you know to be true,” Jessica Meidinger said.
North Carolina saw its worst flooding in a century due to Helene, with more than an estimated 2 feet of rain in some places. Nearly half of the at least 166 deaths attributed to the storm were in the state, The Associated Press reports.
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