Mother of Four Tragically Dies After Being Swept Away in Hurricane Helene Mudslide
Melissa Hensley Guinn/Facebook
A mother of four, Melissa Guinn, has been found dead after being swept away during a mudslide caused by Hurricane Helene in front of her husband, Jamie, and their 8-year-old son, River. The tragedy occurred as the family sheltered in their Minneapolis, North Carolina, home on September 27. Jamie shared the heartbreaking details with NBC affiliate WRAL recounting the devastation that unfolded around 11 a.m. local time.
According to The Charlotte Observer, their home, which overlooked a river, began collapsing due to the powerful mudslides. Jamie told Fox News, “It sounded like a cannon going off. I just remember being crushed by the house falling all around me. And I can remember screaming for my little boy, and I could hear him screaming. Somehow, we dug through the house where it collapsed almost down into the river, and I found him.”
Jamie recalled hearing his wife scream from where the house once stood. “All I could remember was her screaming, ‘Babe, watch out,’” he said. He quickly acted, pulling his son to safety. “I grabbed my little boy and threw him up on the bank to try and grab ahold of a tree or anything to be on the bank away from the river,” he explained.
However, when they returned to the wreckage, Melissa was nowhere to be found. Jamie believed another mudslide had pushed her into the river. “I got right behind my little boy and started screaming for my wife because I couldn’t hear her anymore,” he said. His son then looked at him and said, “Dad, I think mommy’s gone.”
With no choice but to get his son to safety, Jamie and River waded through treacherous rivers and rugged terrain for several hours to find help. It took days before the family learned what had happened, and over a week before Melissa’s body was recovered on Monday, October 7.
Jamie, who suffered a fractured spine and a head laceration, told WRAL that no physical pain compares to losing his wife. “I don’t think I still even comprehended,” he admitted. “Part of me feels like I’m still in a state of shock and understanding everything that happened. I think I’m just making myself realize everything that did happen.”
The couple was just weeks away from celebrating their 10-year wedding anniversary and shared a blended family of four. “She was the absolute greatest mother and wife we could have all even asked for,” Jamie told Fox News.
A GoFundMe campaign set up by one of Jamie’s coworkers to support the family has raised over $76,000 as of Tuesday, October 8. The organizer wrote that Melissa “will be missed greatly by everyone that she touched in life.”
