Survived, missing, dead: stories from Hurricane Helene’s deadly path

Hundreds, if not thousands, of harrowing stories of search and survival have come to light in the wake of Hurricane Helene 's devastation, which destroyed communities in six states across the south-east US after it made landfall in Florida's Big Bend region.

Heading into the weekend, officials reported at least 215 deaths across Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia, the toll climbing as recovery efforts continued. It was the deadliest US hurricane since the levee failures in New Orleans during Katrina killed nearly 1,400 people.

In Facebook groups dedicated to recovery efforts, hundreds of photos of missing relatives, friends, and others are posted daily, with the surviving relatives or friends asking community members for help locating them.

Community members in the hardest-hit areas have even created a list of missing people. People can add the names of their relatives or friends for whom they are looking, along with whether they have been found or are still missing. As of Friday evening, more than 1,400 names were listed as still missing.

Here are some of those stories.

Rod and Kim Ashby Before the storm hit North Carolina, Kim and Rod Ashby drove to their riverfront vacation home in Elk Park to rearrange and safely store some precious family items that were at the house and that had been left in the garage ahead of Hurricane Helene .

The Ashbys' home state of North Carolina was the hardest hit, accounting for at least 100-plus deaths.

The couple, who reside in Sanford, arrived at their mountain home the night of 26 September. When they woke up the next morning, they saw some flooding around the area and discovered that the corner post of their home had collapsed. They needed to get to higher ground urgently.

Kim, a middle school math teacher, and Rod, a retired navy veteran, and their three dogs climbed out of a window and on to the balcony to prepare to jump; before they could, the entire house slid into the river within seconds, Kim's daughter, Jessica Meidinger, told the Guardian.

Rod grabbed Kim and the dogs, and put them on a mattress floating in the house, which was now filled with rising water and speeding down the river. After the house suddenly hit a turn in the river and crashed, the couple were separated. They were soon reunited, and Rod hoisted himself, Kim and the dogs on to a piece of wall from their home as it floated away.

That was until they hit a tree – a sudden impact that catapulted them into the water once more. Rod could no longer see Kim. He yelled for her and saw one of his dogs paddling in the water. But Kim was nowhere to be seen.

Rod grabbed on to a tree branch and pulled himself out of the water, yelling and desperately searching the riverbank for his wife and their dogs, Meidinger said.

The 58-year-old walked 10 miles until he found a neighbor to help him search. More than a week has passed, and Kim has not been found.

Meidinger didn't know her mother was missing until a day later, on Saturday, after one of Rod and Kim's neighbors gained access to Starlink and were able to contact them via Facebook. Members of Kim's family and more than 100 people have joined the search.

"We thought we were going to hear something yesterday, to be honest – we're kind of holding our breath all day long," Meidinger told the Guardian on Friday, before adding: "We're all just on edge, and we're doing puzzles, we're watching comedy specials, things to just try and distract our minds. But honestly, the biggest thing is we're all together, because silence is deafening right now."

Russell and Charlene Wilber Ranee LaPointe, 46, is waiting for any news about her father, Russell Wilber, and his wife of 25 years, Charlene Wilber. The Wilbers, who are in their late 60s and early 70s, disappeared in Helene's wake after the Newland, North Carolina, campground they were staying in flooded.

LaPointe said that her father and his wife live just outside Johnson City, Tennessee, but have a seasonal campground with an RV in Newland. They own a painting and remodeling business in Tennessee and had taken some vacation at the campground, with their dogs, when the flooding struck.

A campground staff member last saw them the night Helene made landfall. But they have not been seen or heard from since.

"We started immediately putting up pictures on social media, just anything," LaPointe said. "We were filling out forms with every crowdsource, rescue, Fema team, everything that we could."

They have tried everything, LaPointe said. They even tried to ping her father's pacemaker, and attempted to connect to Charlene's watch that monitors her heart rate. Nothing has been successful.

"There are several people down there searching for them every day," LaPointe said on Friday. "They are searching tirelessly, like hours a day, from the time they get up until, you know, the time that it's dark and some people are going well into the night."

She added that lack of "finality" and knowing whether they are alive or not keeps her up at night.

LaPointe acknowledged being told to prepare herself for the worst. But "there's still that little bit of, 'What if they're stuck in like a little hut, or what if my dad found something and created a little place for them to be?'"

Some families had already faced the news that they most feared.

Colette and Samira Zoobi On Tuesday, Colette Zoobi was informed that her 28-year-old daughter, Samira Zoobi, 28, who lived in Asheville, North Carolina – one of the hardest-hit areas – had died in the storm after her apartment building was washed away.

Colette recalls texting with her daughter at 10.30am last Friday, when the flooding began, she said. Samira had told her mother that the flooding was up to the second floor of her apartment building, and that her neighbor was with her and that they were waiting to be rescued.

The rescuers did not get there until 1pm, Colette said, adding that at that point the water was up to the third floor where Samira was.

"Apparently, the situation was very chaotic. Rescuers were trying to get residents out," Colette said. "They were throwing ropes to residents, and her building started to shift off its foundation."

Samira, a graphic designer at Asheville T-Shirt printing company, wasn't able to get hold of the ropes, Colette said she was told, and she was washed away.

For several days, Samira's family, and friends waited anxiously for news, and Samira's boyfriend, who also lives in Asheville, scoured the rivers and riverbanks looking for her and her three cats.

On Monday night, Samira's friend, Molly, received information that Samira's body was found and told Colette.

"We finally got in touch with a sheriff at the command center, who called the medical examiner, and they said they're not letting anybody in to see anybody," Colette said. "So we returned home, and then that night, the local police came to our house to let let us know that she had been identified."

Colette still isn't sure when her daughter's body will be released.

"I don't know how long that will take to bring her home," she said. "It's just been devastating. The lack of coordination up there, communication, the finger-pointing by the leadership, it's just totally unacceptable. What's holding everything together there right now is the citizens. Rallying for the community, and searching for people, and getting people to where they need to go for donations, and offering places to stay."

Colette remembers her daughter as "so talented, so creative, intelligent, a creative soul" who was always "there to support family and friends, whatever they need."