Teacher from North Carolina recounts saving others during Hurricane Helene

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — High school math teacher Maddie Allain is lucky her Swannanoa home is on higher ground.

After evacuating to Raleigh, Allain recalled the story of taking a neighbor’s kayak and being joined by her husband Robert and a neighbor to save not only adults, but two small children and a number of pets.

“I was watching out my backyard window and the next thing I know I hear screams of help,” Allain said. “[The water] it’s up to their gutters. I saw a man climb out of his window to get onto the roof. It was something like out of an apocalyptic movie. It was just insane.

“I put in a kayak,” she said. “I couldn’t even find a paddle. I took a snow shovel and was trying to get to this other house. I was not thinking, I was not planning.”

Joined by her husband and neighbor, Allain said “We took a kayak and tied it to another one to get the small kids out. Eventually, they just started putting people in life vests. They were hanging on and taking them back to our backyard.”

“[My husband] brought an ax,” she continued. “He was axing it into people’s roofs because they were stuck in their attics and the water just kept going up. At one point, there were certain houses that you could just see the little tops and they’re all single story. Our backyard neighbors had a basketball hoop and we used that basketball hoop as a metric to see it was probably at its highest.”

Elliot Kimball and Julie Bunna also left the Asheville area to find refuge with family in Raleigh.

“Homes captured, going down the river,” Bunna said. “You don’t know if people are inside it. I can’t even imagine.”

After trying to find roads and highways that were passable, Kimball and Bunna recalled what it was like just trying to leave.

“I think we were a little bit anxious to get out and didn’t really slow down, but also we knew so many people have it so much worse that what we experience,” Kimball said. “We just didn’t have power and cell phone service. We had water. Other people are a lot worse and we consider ourselves pretty fortunate.”

Added Bunna, “As we were driving around, trying to find a location that had service, that was really when we saw the destruction everywhere. That was hard to even process, even seeing it with homes and buildings and cars just under water.”

All three know it will take a long time to recover. They also recognize the miracles within the loss.

“It’s just really devastating that the people who have lived in this community for so long lost everything,” Allain said. “The fact that everyone from at least our neighborhood is alive is incredible.”

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