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.
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.
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
So sad. But I am grateful that Marsha and so many others survived and are recovering.
Thank you so much for posting this. I will pass it on. Their names need to be read, and spoken, and heard ... and mourned. 🙏🏽