Helene will go down in history not just for the immense damage it caused but also the lives lost – 43 in Buncombe County alone.
That statistic will forever be associated with a disaster once unimaginable for a landlocked, mountainous region.
Like you, we at Asheville Watchdog listened to the news briefings in those early days with deepening distress as the death toll climbed higher and higher. We committed then to tell the stories of those 43 souls, not just how they died but how they lived.
It was a difficult undertaking – the emotional toll it took on our reporters and photographer, the challenge of finding relatives of the deceased, and the task of simply identifying the dead.
More than 12 weeks after the storm, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, whose medical examiners determine storm-related fatalities, still have not released the names of the deceased.
To find them, I scoured death records on the Buncombe County Register of Deeds website every weekday, opening more than 850 death certificates, one at a time, to find those with “Helene” as a cause.
Only 41 of the 43 death certificates have been filed. NCDHHS will not release the names listed on the other two, citing ongoing death investigations.
The Watchdog’s 10-part Lives We Lost series, which kicked off Oct. 19, not only told the stories of the storm’s casualties; it provided the first accounting of where and how the deaths occurred. We now know that more than half were in two areas of the county – 17 in Fairview and nine in Swannanoa.
Landslides were responsible for most of the deaths, 23, while drowning accounted for 13. Three people died from diseases hastened by the storm, including a cancer patient unable to attend his chemotherapy session, and two from blunt force injuries caused by falling trees.
But most of all, we learned about the lives of our neighbors who perished in harrowing conditions.
Couples gone, families’ losses staggering
Seven married couples died, including Judy Dockery, 64, of Swannanoa, known as “Mama” or “Aunt Judy” who loved serving, cooking and caring for others, and James Dockery, 63, a Buncombe native and preacher who enjoyed making others laugh; Michael Drye, 73, an attorney specializing in family law, and Norah Drye, 73, a devoted mother who along with her husband were leaders at Biltmore Church; and Robert Ramsuer, 70, a Vietnam War veteran who worked in maintenance at Cracker Barrel, and Nola Ramsuer, 70, whose daughter described her as soft spoken and sweet and who enjoyed baking birthday cakes for friends and coworkers.
These photos show what Craigtown looked like before Helene and in its aftermath. Eleven members of the Craig family, for which the community is named, died in landslides. // Photos provided by Mekenzie Craig
Four couples were among the victims of the Craigtown landslides in Fairview: Ronald Craig, 68, a retired brick mason who loved hunting, fishing and gardening, and Sandra Craig, 69, a state worker and great cook; Lois Souther, 73, an Asheville native who loved hummingbirds and flowers, and Jimmy Souther, 73, whose passion was working on cars and lawnmowers; Daniel and Evelyn Wright, 82 and 81 and married more than 65 years, who cherished their relatives and church family at Cedar Mountain Baptist Church; and Freddie Pack, 66, an electrician and U.S. Coast Guard veteran who enjoyed the outdoors, and Teresa Pack, 60, a pharmacy technician who loved the Asheville Tourists and taking her grandchildren to Dollywood.
Several families lost multiple relatives. The Dryes’ grandson, Micah, 7, also died when their house along Swannanoa River Road collapsed.
Besides the four couples in Craigtown, who were all related, three others from the same family died in those landslides. Angela Craig, 64, a retired state worker, loved animals, gardening and her family. Tony Garrison, 51 and a battalion chief with the Fairview Fire Department, was described as a humble public servant who enjoyed woodworking, fishing, and his family. His nephew, Robert Brandon Ruppe, 37, had a big heart and could light up a room with his sense of humor.
The other victims of the Craigtown landslides were Chase Garrell, a 28-year-old auto mechanic described as selfless and a loyal friend, and Marsha Ball, 40, who graduated from a program serving students with disabilities and whose hobbies included coloring on her iPad.
Floodwaters from a creek behind George Dixon’s Swannanoa home ripped the back portion off and swept him away. // Watchdog photo by Starr Sariego
Washed away in deadly floodwaters
Rapidly rising floodwaters that spilled over the banks of creeks and the Swannanoa River killed more than a dozen people.
George Dixon, 72, a renowned blacksmith described by fellow artists as among the best in the country, was swept away after a flooding creek tore off the back of his Swannanoa house with him in it.
Lyn McFarland, 68, an outgoing real estate agency owner with a wide circle of friends, was last seen with his beloved dog, Poco, standing on a piece of his riverside home as it bobbed downstream.
Omar Khan and his neighbor, Samira Zoobi, were stranded on a balcony of their apartment complex on River’s Edge Road when the building broke away and spun down the Swannanoa. Khan, 44, a pharmacist and father of two, was described by his wife as compassionate with a pure heart and sense of innocence. Zoobi, 28, a graphic designer at Asheville T-Shirt Co., was described by her best friend as her “confidant, therapist, best advice giver, voice of reason.”
James Harbison, 71, drowned in floodwaters while crossing a creek in Swannanoa to visit a relative. A welder, he loved to sketch cartoon characters and had been a paratrooper in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.
Lisa Plemmons, 52 and a cook at an Asheville nursing home, had been staying in her car at a riverside campground when rising waters swept it away. Plemmons took time off from work to care for sick relatives and loved preparing meals for her extended family.
Norman McGahee, 73, died when water from the river and a creek combined into a torrent and washed away his Swannanoa home. A Vietnam War veteran and Asheville native, he had owned a flooring business, and loved music and the Carolina Panthers.
Kim Kutscher Stepp, 65, drowned when floodwaters swept away her Fairview home. Her grandson survived by clinging to a tree. A Buncombe County native, she worked as an office administrator for Asheville Cardiology and loved Buc-ee’s, her dogs and family.
Gabriel Gonzalez, 52, had gone to work at the Ingles distribution center near the Swannanoa River, where his body was later found. Co-workers called the El Salvador native “the happy one” because he always sang as he loaded tractor-trailers.
Jody Henderson, 63, had rented a cabin at the KOA campground along the Swannanoa with his dog, Bullet, that collapsed in rising water. His sister described him as extremely loving but said he struggled with bipolar disorder and was often homeless.
Calvin McMahan, 63, had been homeless for years and was staying under a bridge near the Swannanoa. The oldest of 10 children and a father of two, he loved to travel and preach to people he met.
John David Keretz, 69, drowned; his body was found near Echo Lake about a mile from his home in Fairview. A financial planner, he was an armed services veteran.
Landslides, falling trees, disease complications
Three people died from landslide injuries, but the circumstances were unavailable.
Patrick McLean, 45, of Black Mountain, enjoyed painting, illustrating and photography and admired global peacekeepers.
Jessica Kirby, 36, also of Black Mountain, was a home health aide and mother of two.
Cathy Jo Blackburn Minish, 52, had gone to Fairview to stay with a friend. Her daughter described her as “really funny and outgoing” and said she loved crafts, travel and trips to the beach.
Two died from falling trees, including Timothy Moore, 60, who had gone to clear one tree on his Woodfin property when another toppled onto him. He was a year from retirement from his job as a deliveryman for Pepsi and loved his motorcycle, the rock band AC/DC and his two daughters, one of whom found his body.
Bobby Stokely, 57, was struck by a falling tree clearing brush in north Asheville a month after the storm. A resident of Maggie Valley, he enjoyed hunting and fishing, John Wayne movies and helping others.
Three died of diseases exacerbated by the storm.
The cause of death for Patricia Radford, 84, was cardiovascular disease with “utilities failure” and Hurricane Helene listed as contributing conditions, according to her death certificate. A former bank manager, she lived in a nursing home and was described as a loving mother and grandmother.
Brian Carter, 78, died of complications from cancer with “inability to attend chemotherapy session” and Helene listed as contributing conditions on his death certificate. Originally from Guyana, he was a self-employed janitor.
Lula Jackson, 63, died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with Helene as a secondary cause. A mother of two, she loved her pastor and church, Worldwide Missionary Baptist.
Latest victim: Independent, polite, kind
In all, The Watchdog’sLives we Lost series profiled 40 of the storm’s victims. Another fatality, that of Sean O’Connor, recently became public with the filing of his death certificate on Dec. 12, more than 10 weeks after the storm.
O’Connor, 64, had been homeless and came to AHOPE day shelter for supplies about once a month, said Alanna Kinsella, homeless services director at Homeward Bound.
“He would ride in on his bike, and we’d get him the supplies he needed, and then we wouldn’t see him again for a while,” Kinsella said.
She described him as independent, resourceful, polite and kind. “He was always willing to share something with somebody, hold the door open, smile, say, ‘Good morning,’ ” Kinsella said.
O’Connor’s body was found the same day, Sept. 30, and at the same location as McMahan’s, along the Swannanoa near the flooded Brother Wolf Animal Rescue. Kinsella believes they had been together.
“Sean was one of those people who really tried to make a minimal impact on the world and just really use what he needed for his survival,” Kinsella said. “He was an amazing human.”
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Sally Kestin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. Email skestin@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-03 14:11:00
(The Center Square) – Hurricane Helene’s death toll in North Carolina has grown to 107 and is 236 across seven states.
Gov. Josh Stein shared news of a death in the Avery County community of Newland. The wife of a couple camping was among those who died in earlier confirmations; the husband’s death was added on Thursday after his body was found.
The governor said the couple was camping on the last weekend of September when the storm hit.
This weekend marks the beginning of the 28th week of recovery. Damage is estimated at $60 billion.
Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Dekle Beach, Fla., on Sept. 26. It was expected to come north to the Appalachian Mountains; however, the rainfall total from its dissipation there exceeded all forecasts.
Some places got more than 30 inches, most were at 24 or more. Due to terrain, water often rushed before it pooled and flooded – very unlike the flooding that happens in the coastal plains.
AccuWeather said rainfall totals were 32.51 inches in Jeter Mountain, 31.36 inches in Busick, and 26.65 inches in Hughes.
Forty-two died in Buncombe County, 11 in Yancey and 10 in Henderson.
Respective state officials say 49 were killed in South Carolina, 34 in Georgia, 25 in Florida, 18 in Tennessee, two in Virginia and one in Indiana.
Numbers were confirmed by The Center Square based on information supplied by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services; South Carolina Department of Public Safety; Georgia Emergency Management Agency; Florida Department of Law Enforcement; Tennessee Emergency Management Agency; Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin; and the Gibson County Sheriff’s Office in Indiana.
Helene is the fourth most deadly hurricane from the Atlantic Basin in the last three-quarters of a century. Only Katrina (2005, deaths 1,392), Audrey (1957, deaths 416) and Camille (1969, deaths 256) killed more people.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-02 14:21:00
(The Center Square) – Minority benefit against the majority giving up “agency, creativity, decision-making and other vital skills” in what is described as a valley of an artificial intelligence journey is likely in the next few years, says one voice among hundreds in a report from Elon University.
John M. Stuart’s full-length essay, one of 200 such responses in “Being Human in 2035: How Are We Changing in the Age of AI?,” speaks to the potential problems foreseen as artificial intelligence continues to be incorporated into everyday life by many at varying levels from professional to personal to just plain curious. The report authored by Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie of Elon’s Imagining the Digital Future Center says “the fragile future of some foundational and unique traits” found only in humans is a concern for 6 in 10.
“I fear – the time being – that while there will be a growing minority benefitting ever more significantly with these tools, most people will continue to give up agency, creativity, decision-making and other vital skills to these still-primitive AIs and the tools will remain too centralized and locked down with interfaces that are simply out of our personal control as citizens,” writes Smart, a self-billed global futurist, foresight consultant, entrepreneur and CEO of Foresight University. “I fear we’re still walking into an adaptive valley in which things continue to get worse before they get better. Looking ahead past the next decade, I can imagine a world in which open-source personal AIs are trustworthy and human-centered.
“Many political reforms will reempower our middle class and greatly improve rights and autonomy for all humans, whether or not they are going through life with PAIs. I would bet the vast majority of us will consider ourselves joined at the hip to our digital twins once they become useful enough. I hope we have the courage, vision and discipline to get through this AI valley as quickly and humanely as we can.”
Among the ideas by 2035 from the essays, Paul Saffo offered, “The first multi-trillion-dollar corporation will employ no humans except legally required executives and board, have no offices, own no property and operate entirely through AI and automated systems.”
Saffo is a futurist and technology forecaster in the Silicon Valley of California, and a consulting professor at the School of Engineering at Stanford.
In another, Vint Cerf wrote, “We may find it hard to distinguish between artificial personalities and the real ones. That may result in a search for reliable proof of humanity so that we and bots can tell the difference.”
Cerf is generally known as one of the “fathers of the internet” alongside Robert Kahn and for the internet protocol suite, colloquially known as TCP/IP.
Working alongside the well-respected Elon University Poll, the survey asked, “What might be the magnitude of overall change in the next decade in people’s native operating systems and operations as we more broadly adapt to and use advanced AIs by 2035? From five choices, 61% said considerable (deep and meaningful change 38%) and dramatic (fundamental, revolutionary change 23%) and another 31% said moderate and noticeable, meaning clear and distinct.
Only 5% said minor change and 3% no noticeable change.
“This report is a revealing and provocative declaration to the profound depth of change people are undergoing – often without really noticing at all – as we adapt to deeper uses of advancing AI technology,” Anderson said. “Collectively, these experts are calling on humanity to think intentionally and carefully, taking wise actions now, so we do not sleepwalk into an AI future that we never intended and do not want.”
In another question, respondents answered whether artificial intelligence and related technologies are likely to change the essence of being human. Fifty percent said changes were equally better and worse, 23% said mostly for the worse, and 16% said mostly for the better.
The analysis predicted change mostly negative in nine areas: social and emotional intelligence; capacity and willingness to think deeply about complex concepts; trust in widely shared values and norms; confidence in their native abilities; empathy and application of moral judgment; mental well-being; sense of agency; sense of identity and purpose; and metacognition.
Mostly positive, the report says, are curiosity and capacity to learn; decision-making and problem-solving; and innovative thinking and creativity.
Anderson and Rainie and those working on the analysis did not use large language models for writing and editing, or in analysis of the quantitative data for the qualitative essays. Authors said there was brief experimentation and human realization “there were serious flaws and inaccuracies.” The report says 223 of 301 who responded did so “fully generated out of my own mind, with no LLM assistance.”
SUMMARY: On March 14, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dramatically reduce funding for seven federal agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which awarded $266.7 million in 2024. The order aims to eliminate non-essential functions and cut agency personnel to legal minimums. The move sparked backlash from library and museum organizations, warning it would severely impact early literacy programs, internet access, job assistance, and community services. Critics urged Congress to intervene, while the administration framed the cuts as part of efforts to reduce government waste under the U.S. DOGE Service initiative led by Elon Musk.