At the moment she posted the photo, Jessica Drye Turner was still hoping for help. Moments later the roof gave way.
It is a photo that shows the distress and desperation of the victims of Hurricane Helene, the helplessness of people in the face of the forces of an unleashed nature: You see a couple, both in their 70s. The two of them crouch on a rooftop, the muddy waters rising around them.
A short time later the roof collapses and the couple is swept away by the water. Their seven-year-old grandson drowns with them.
The photo was taken by Megan Drye, the couple’s daughter and mother of seven-year-old Micah. Megan’s sister Jessica posted it on Facebook. At first it was intended as a cry for help. Jessica hoped someone would be able to reach her family members in time and bring them to safety. “You see semi-trucks and cars drifting past,” Jessica wrote of the people on the roof. “They called 911, but they are not the only ones who need saving. I pray for their lives.”
In an update she later said: Of the four people in the house, only one survived. Her sister Megan was trapped between objects and rescued an hour after the roof collapsed.
Another update said: “They just found Micah’s body.” The dead boy was discovered a few hundred meters behind where Megan was rescued. “It’s heartbreaking,” Jessica wrote. “The last thing Micah screamed before he was swept away was, ‘Jesus! Please help me!'”
Jessica and Megan’s parents are still missing. But the sisters no longer have hope. “When the bodies are found, they are just shells,” writes Jessica. “It makes me sick that Megan has to live with these images.”
video | Up to 600 deaths expected from Hurricane Helene
Hurricane “Helene” hit the USA with apocalyptic force. Despite all the precautions – people had been taken from the disaster area to emergency camps by bus in advance – more than 110 deaths have now been counted in six states. Entire towns are still under water and streets have simply been washed away. Some areas are cut off from the outside world and can only be reached by helicopter. Several dams are in danger of breaking.
And the government fears many more deaths: Up to 600 people could have died, said US President Joe Biden’s homeland security advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall. This is the number of people currently missing, and there has been no news of them four days after “Helene” made landfall on Thursday evening.
It can hardly be denied that climate change played a part in the destructiveness of Hurricane Helene: Tropical cyclones suck their energy from warm ocean water. Increasing global warming is heating up the world’s oceans – and, according to experts, increasing the likelihood of strong hurricanes.
