Stories from the Storm: Survivors Describe Their Frightening Experiences During Hurricane Helene

It's been more than a week since Hurricane Helene washed away entire communities and left tens of thousands of people across the Southeast with nothing. Hundreds of people are still reported as missing.

The American Red Cross has hundreds of disaster workers on the ground working 24/7 to provide shelter, food, water and comfort to people struggling with unimaginable wreckage. In our shelters, survivors describe their harrowing experiences during the storm. Here are a few of their stories:

"Thought I was going to die"

"I thought I was going to die the night of the hurricane," says Kirk Herschell. "I really did."

"I was sleeping in a chair outside my house after the hurricane had passed through and I felt the water lapping up my legs," he said. "The water from the storm surge came in so quickly, and soon everything was flooded. I saw my neighbor float by on a blow-up mattress. Everything at my house is ruined, it's all gone."

Kirk arrived at a Red Cross emergency shelter in Hudson, Florida, the next morning. "Everything you see me wearing was donated to me," he says. "I have nothing. The Red Cross people here have taken care of me the best. They've given me everything I need right now, a place to sleep, food to eat. We're here, and we're alive - and we're going to be okay."

Life or death struggle

Staying home became a life-or-death struggle for Dorothy Brooks.

"I knew Hurricane Helene was coming, and I knew I needed to find someplace to go," she said. "But I couldn't get a hotel, so I just stayed home."

"The storm surge came up so quickly and was rushing like a river so I couldn't open the door. I finally got a window open to get out of the house, but the water was over three feet deep," the 76-year-old reported. "I held onto the window frame looking for help and saw my neighbors being swept down the street by the strong current. One of my neighbors spent 14 hours on the top of her pickup before she could be rescued."

Eventually, a Coast Guard Humvee combing the neighborhood rescued Brooks and brought her to the Red Cross shelter in Hudson, Florida. "When you see the Red Cross, you know you are safe," she says. "They've treated me so good since I've been here."

This isn't the first time Dorothy has been helped by the Red Cross. "I'm a military veteran," she said, "and when I was shipped to Korea, I had just arrived and the Red Cross came to tell me that my brother had been in a bad car accident back in the states. They arranged everything for me to turn around and rush right back home to my family."

"The Red Cross is always there to help us," Dorothy continued. ""In fact, they're even spoiling me a bit. I'm 76 years old, and they're taking real good care of me."

No food for three days

"The flood waters were rising so quickly." says Laury McKenna. "I had my little dog on my head and the living room couch was floating."

Laury told her story to Rhonda Ritchie, Red Cross disaster health services volunteer nurse at an emergency shelter in Hudson, Florida, where she ultimately found refuge after Hurricane Helene devastated her home.

"It was awful at my house - everything was destroyed," she said. "I knew I needed to go someplace - I hadn't eaten for three days and I knew I needed help. But I just couldn't leave my dog behind." When the neighbors checked on her, they insisted she go to the Red Cross shelter, assuring her that both she and the dog would be welcome.

"Laury looked nearly dead when she arrived here at the shelter," Ritchey said. "She was in bad shape and suffering from extreme anxiety. But we helped her get the medications she had lost and got her back on schedule and now she's a thousand times better than when she arrived."

"The Red Cross has been so good to me since I've been here," Laury says. "The nurses have really taken good care of me and I'm so much better. They've been kind, and they've gone out of their way to do the best for me they can."

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