North Carolina family devastated after Hurricane Helene flood sweeps mom away from husbands arms
A North Carolina family is reeling while one of their own is missing after Helene’s devastating floods.Kim Ashby, 58, is among the hundreds still unaccounted for in western North Carolina after her home was swept away by raging floodwaters.Ashby, a seventh-grade teacher, was with her husband Rod at their newly completed dream home in Elk Park near the Tennessee border when Helene’s torrential rains began Friday.After breakfast, Rod looked outside and saw one of the footers attached to the house was getting loose, his family members told FOX Weather.He ran up to his wife and said they had to evacuate right away.That was when debris hit the house, and it went into the river, taking the Ashbys with it.
Rod tried to hold onto Kim, but he lost his grip, and she was swept away, family members said. Rod was found safe hours later, more than 2 miles from the house, after escaping the river.He even managed to help others in need of rescue.Kim remains missing.Her daughter and daughter-in-law are among family members now with Rod at a family home in Pittsboro, holding out hope that their mother can be found.“We’re doing the best we can,” Jessica Meidinger told FOX Weather.
“Just kind of banding together, waiting to hear news.And without each other, I don’t know how we would be, but we’re able to kind of lean in just to have that camaraderie with each other.”Meidinger said her mother is caring, giving and selfless.“She’s just a happy, loving soul,” Meidinger said.
“She’s known as Mama Kim to a lot of people, not just to her children.So she’s an incredibly vibrant individual that just spreads joy.”They said Rod Ashby is distraught and wants to go back to the river bed to search.“He hiked almost 10 miles every single day to get back down to the river and search for her,” Lauren Meidinger, Ashby’s daughter-in-law, said.
“He has some non-life-threatening injuries, but he’s been treated at the local USC hospital, and he wants to ...