Remembering the 104 North Carolinians Lost to Hurricane Helene

North Carolina officials finally release the names of the 104 Hurricane Helene victims.

From the hollers of Madison County, North Carolina to the flood-swollen banks of the French Broad, Watauga, and Catawba rivers, Hurricane Helene carved a path through our mountain communities that will be marked in memory for generations to come.

This week, as the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released the official list of 104 lives lost to the tropical storm, our region faces the sobering task of acknowledging both the scope of our loss and the stories of those who were taken from us.

Hurricane Helene: When Things Fall Apart

For months, our communities have carried these losses in fragments—a neighbor's account here, a family's grief there, stories slowly passing from one person to the next. The isolating topography and reshaping of the Appalachian Mountains has made gathering information a challenge for officials, to say the least.

The official accounting, released Monday in response to a BPR News records request and reported by Anna Douglass, brings these scattered pieces of our collective grief into sharper focus.

Yet even this document, important as it is, tells only part of our story in southern Appalachia.

The list represents those the Medical Examiner's Office has officially determined to be Helene-related fatalities, but the full measure of our loss extends beyond these boundaries. Some of our fellow Appalachians who were carried across state lines by the storm's fury—particularly those found in Tennessee after devastating landslides and floods—may not be reflected in these numbers.

The work of accounting for our missing neighbors has been painstaking and continuous.

What began as hundreds of missing persons reports across western North Carolina has been steadily reduced through the determined efforts of local authorities and community members. While current estimates suggest fewer than 20 people remain unaccounted for, each number represents a family waiting for answers, a front porch light still burning in hope—or in defiance of despair’s suffocating force.

As we move forward from this watershed moment in southern Appalachia’s history, we carry with us both the weight of loss and the strength of community that emerged in response to it. We came together, embodying so many of what the Appalachian writer Wendell Berry calls “gentle virtues”: social bonds, care, mutual aid, stewardship, place, belonging, cooperation, harmony, and unity.

I’ll never forget that. We’ll need that social capital and mutual grace in the challenging political and economic times ahead.

Our relief efforts are ongoing, and remain as important as ever with winter’s fury blowing into these mountains, further threatening the health and safety of those who continue to lack sufficient shelter and resources.

Where Are All the Appalachians of Color in News Coverage of Hurricane Helene?

The release of these names marks not an end but another milestone in our collective journey of remembrance and recovery.

When future generations ask about Hurricane Helene, let them know not just of the storm's ferocity, but of how we came together in its wake. Let them learn of both the lives we lost and the connections we forged, the ways we learned to be better neighbors anew in our darkest hours.

Take a moment to read aloud the names of the 104 people who perished. Send a thought or prayer to their loved ones who are left behind to mourn. Reach out to struggling neighbors. Find a relief organization that needs volunteers or supplies.

Do. Something.

North Carolina’s Official List of Hurricane Helene Victims

Vicki Lynn Allen

James Ernest Andrews

Keith Max Arvey

Robert Bruce Athey

Marsha Lynn Ball

Cathy Jo Blackburn

Lisa Peeler Brady

Billy Joe Calloway

Patricia Crane Carey

James Ryan Carroll

Brian Hilbert Carter

David Allen Carver

Molly Ashleigh Chandler

Rocco Vincent Chieco

Kathleen Egitto Chieco

William Carl Cordell

Angela Leigh Craig

Sandra Elizabeth Craig

Ronald Jesse Craig

Robert Jack Davis

George Frank Dixon

Judy Gail Dockery

James Olver Dockery

Madge Louise Downs

George Wesley Drye

Michael Warren Drye

Nora Drye

Micah Ashton Drye

Christopher Sylvester Haywood Dunbar

Patricia Elaine Fleming

Thomas Mitchell Freeman

Luna Jade Gaddis

Brian Christopher Gaddis

Chase Edward Garrell

Tony Ray Garrison

Janicke Therese Glynn

Gabriel Gonzalez Gonzalez

Jacqueline Lum Goodrich

May Colette Greene

Melissa Sue Guinn

James Harbison

Gordon Dean Hargrove

Cheryl Lynn Hart

Jody Nyle Henderson

Joseph Charles Hoyle

Lula Bell Jackson

John David Keretz

Omar Farooq Khan

Jessica Lynn Kirby

Charles James Lau

Melissa Marlene Lawrence

Victoria Rose Leger

Julie Ann le Roux

Jeffrey Alan Mackay

Shirley Maureen Mains

Juan Martin

Phyllis Ann Matheson

Michael Gene Matheson

Angela Ruth Maybin

Elizabeth Rose Mayes

Lyn Dale Mcfarland

Norman McGahee

Patrick Andrew McLean

Calvin Michael McMahan

Jeffrey Lee Merry

Nick Hartwell Mitchell

Jimmy Issac Moore

Timothy Lee Moore

Anastasiia Novitnia Segen

Sean Michael O'Connor

Freddie James Pack

Teresa Kim Pack

Knox Emerson Petrucci

Lisa Renee Plemmons

Todd Joseph Proffitt

Michelle Lynn Quintero

Patricia Ruth Radford

Nola Lee Ramsuer

Robert Lee Ramsuer

Shirley Anne Ray

Brittany Rosann Robinson

Sandra Lynn Rogers

Robert Butch Ross

Robert Brandon Ruppe

David Eric Russell

James Michael Scroggs

Dmytro Segen

James Scott Sieminski

Lois Edith Souther

James Willard Souther

Kim Kutscher Stepp

Bobby Dewayne Stokely

Susan Strickland

Anthony Ernest Taylor

Bruce Eugene Tipton

Danny Van Huffman

Michael Gordon Whitehouse

Charlene Wilber

Lucas Odhran Wisely

Felix Alexander Wisely

Evelyn Lorrine Wright

Daniel Lunnie Wright

Samira Jordan Zoobi

Christopher John Zserai