A mother who lost her seven-year-old son and her parents to Hurricane Helene has opened up about the horrific tragedy.
Megan Drye, her son Micah, and her parents Michael and Nora, both 73, sought refuge on the roof of their home as floodwaters engulfed their neighborhood in Asheville, North Carolina.
Drye’s sister, Jessica Drye Turner, took to Facebook to recount the family's harrowing experience. She posted photos of their parents, wrapped in blankets on the rooftop, as they watched helplessly while "18-wheelers and cars floated by."
Shortly after the photo was taken, the house collapsed under the pressure of the floodwaters.
Megan's parents, both in their 70s, and young Micah were swept away and tragically drowned despite rescue efforts.
Megan miraculously survived, becoming trapped in the debris.
“We started drifting in the water. We were floating. The house was breaking apart,” Megan told The New York Post, recalling the terrifying moment the roof began to disintegrate.
The family clung to what remained, but a tangle of power lines dragged them into the floodwaters. In those chaotic moments, Megan heard her son’s final screams.
Megan and her father were momentarily caught in the branches of a tree, but she saw her mother being swept past, struggling to keep her head above water. “Micah’s back there!” her mother yelled.
Megan tried to free herself to reach Micah, but the force of the water was too strong.
“I was trying to unwind myself from this tree so I could get to my son, but I was stuck,” she explained. “Every time I let go, the water was pushing me back. It was pushing buildings, cars, trailers. I had no chance to swim back.”
The next few moments remain a blur for Megan, being swept away from her father, letting go of her backpack with their dog inside, and wedging herself between two shipping containers as the water pounded her like “ocean waves against a cliff.”
A passerby spotted her, and rescue teams arrived soon after.
“All of a sudden, I hear them screaming at me, and I looked up, and an 18-wheeler is coming at me,” she said.
“It crashed directly into the boxes, but they didn’t move. I watched that 18-wheeler crumple like a piece of paper... That’s unimaginable without the grace of God.”
After finding a handhold, Megan climbed to the top of one container, where she was finally rescued to the cheers of onlookers on the bridge.
When she reached the hospital, Megan was overwhelmed with worry for her son.
"This woman comes up to me and says, ‘Oh my God, are you OK? I need to pray for you,’” Megan recalled. “And I said, ‘No, my son is out there! Please look for my son!’”
After the floodwaters receded, the only thing left of her parents’ house was a trail of bricks leading into Asheville’s French Broad River.
A few days later, rescuers found the bodies of Megan’s father and Micah. It took eight days to locate her mother’s remains, which had washed up on the grounds of Asheville’s historic Biltmore Estate.
For Megan’s sister, Jessica, recovering their mother’s body was a bittersweet end to their ordeal. “My stubborn-ass mom, she’s so feisty, she freaking kept her backpack on her so she could be ID’d,” Jessica said. “I know she was having conversations with Jesus, saying, ‘I need to know they can identify my body.’”
Jessica acknowledged that others haven’t been as fortunate. “There are so many other people who have gone through worse than us,” she said.
“There might be people who don’t know where their loved ones are, whose loved ones are in Raleigh, where they’re keeping the unidentified bodies.”
As Megan, now staying with another sister in Minnesota, processes her grief, she tries to find solace in her faith.
“There are no words to describe losing half of your heart, losing your child or your parents,” she said.
“But I know they are at peace. My parents’ faith was strong, and they are where they want to be. My son’s last words were calling out to Jesus, and I know he is happy with Jesus now.”
