Father survives but mother still missing after home swept away in Helene floodwaters
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Families like the Meidingers are in agony, waiting to find out if their loved one in western North Carolina is OK after Helene ripped through causing devastation and damage.
Chris and Jessica Meidinger are brother and sister, and their mom, Kim Ashby, was last heard from on Thursday night.
Kim and her husband, Rod Ashby, had just finished building their dream home in Elk Park, near Banner Elk. They live in Sanford, where Kim is a seventh-grade math teacher at SanLee Middle School. They decided to go up to their new mountain home to make sure everything would be OK during the storm.
"Obviously, they didn't know that it was going to be what it turned into," Jessica told ABC11 on Monday night.
Rod Ashby had largely built the home with his own two hands, and some of the wood came from his family's barn. He had even marked where historical floods had hit the area and made sure to build the house more than a dozen feet higher than the highest past flood, hoping to avoid the possibility of ever seeing that kind of damage to their home.
When Helene hit, they made sure to be at the home to lift anything precious off the ground floor and be there in case there was any slight damage.
Her children said they last heard from their mom on Thursday night when she checked in to say that they had made it to the home and the flooding was far from their house.
They haven't heard from her since.
They heard from a neighbor that the Ashby's home was seen floating down the river, they later received a picture to prove it.
Then, they heard from Rod Ashby. He told them that they had just poured their morning coffee on Friday when they heard a crack. They saw that a beam had snapped. By the time they tried to get to higher ground, it was already too late.
"The walls had already started crumbling, the flood swept away the house," Chris said.
The couple immediately went to their bedroom with their three dogs. They were riding it out on a mattress when the house hit the river bank and collapsed around them. They were clinging 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, I guess, a tree hanging down and he was able to grab on to that and get himself out of the water, and 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 -- and he's been searching ever since," Jessica said.
They know Rod Ashby is now safe and getting help; he contacted them to let them know what happened. However, they're entering day four of waiting to find out if their mom is OK. Their three dogs are also still missing.
Though they 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 said.
If you have any information, please contact Chris Meidinger at (252) 455-5505.
