Melissa Guinn, a mother of four, was found dead after being swept away by a landslide caused by Hurricane Helene in front of her husband, Jamie, and 8-year-old son, River. The tragedy occurred while the family was sheltering in place at their home in Minneapolis, North Carolina, on September 27. Jamie shared the heartbreaking details with NBC affiliate WRAL recounting the devastation that unfolded around 11 a.m. local time.
According The Charlotte ObserverHis house, which overlooked a river, began to collapse due to strong landslides. Jamie told him. fox news“It sounded like a cannon going off. I just remember being crushed by the house that collapsed around me. And I remember screaming for my little boy and I could hear him screaming. Somehow, we dug through the house where it collapsed almost to the river, and I found it.”
Jamie remembered hearing his wife scream from where the house once stood. “The only thing I could remember was her screaming, ‘Honey, be careful,’” he said. He acted quickly and got his son to safety. “I grabbed my little guy and threw him on the shore to try to grab a tree or anything to be on the shore away from the river,” he explained.
However, when they returned to the rubble, Melissa was nowhere to be found. Jamie believed another landslide had pushed her into the river. “I got behind my little boy and started screaming for my wife because I couldn’t hear her anymore,” he said. Then his son looked at him and said, “Dad, I think Mommy’s gone.”
With no choice but to get their son to safety, Jamie and River waded through treacherous rivers and rugged terrain for several hours to find help. It was days before the family found out what happened and more than a week before Melissa’s body was recovered on Monday, October 7.
Jamie, who suffered a fractured spine and a laceration to her head, said WRAL that no physical pain compares to losing your wife. “I don’t think I understand it yet,” he admitted. “Part of me feels like I’m still in shock and understanding everything that happened. “I think I’m making myself realize everything that happened.”
The couple was just weeks away from celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary and shared a blended family of four. “She was the best mother and wife we all could have asked for,” Jamie said. fox news.
TO GoFundMe campaign created by one of Jamie’s coworkers to support the family has raised over $76,000 as of Tuesday, October 8. The organizer wrote that Melissa “will be greatly missed by everyone she touched in life.”
