Mom of 4 Swept Away by Hurricane Helene in Front of Husband and Son

A mother of four has been found dead after being swept away in front of her husband and their 8-year-old son following a series of mudslides caused by Hurricane Helene.

Melissa Guinn was sheltering inside their Minneapolis, N.C., home with her husband, Jamie, and son River on Sept. 27 as Helene unleashed devastation through the western part of the state, Jamie told NBC affiliate WRAL and Fox News. Then havoc broke out around 11 a.m. local time, The Charlotte Observer reported.

Their home, which overlooked a river, suddenly began tumbling down, according to Fox News.

“It sounded like a cannon going off. I just remember being crushed by the house falling all around me,” Jamie told the outlet. “And I can remember screaming for my little boy, and I could hear him screaming. And somehow, we dug through the house where it collapsed almost down into the river and I found him.”

Jamie told WRAL that he could hear his wife screaming from where the house originally stood.

“All I could remember was her screaming, ‘Babe, watch out,’ ” he recalled. “So I grabbed my little boy and threw him up on the bank to try and grab ahold of a tree or anything to try and just find something to be on the bank away from the river.”

But when the father and son raced back to their leveled home, she was gone, according to the reports. While speaking with WRAL, the dad shared that he believed another mudslide pushed his wife into the river.

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“I got right behind my little boy and started screaming for my wife because I couldn’t hear her anymore,” he said. “He looked at me and said, ‘Dad, I think mommy’s gone.’ ”

Realizing he needed to get his son to safety, the Observer reported they were forced to wade around raging rivers and ravaged hillsides for several hours to get help. It would take days until Melissa’s family learned what happened — and over a week until her body was finally recovered on Monday, Oct. 7.

Melissa suffered a fractured spine and a laceration to his head, per the reports, but Jamie told WRAL that no pain is worse than the death of his wife.

“I don’t think I still even comprehended,” he said. “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 two were just weeks away from celebrating their 10-year wedding anniversary and shared a blended family of four, per the Observer.

“She was the absolute greatest mother and wife we could have all even asked for,” Jamie told Fox News.

In a GoFundMe fundraiser created by one of Jamie’s coworkers to help the family, the organizer said Melissa “will be missed greatly by everyone that she touched in life.”

More than $76,000 has been raised as of Tuesday, Oct. 8.

To learn more about how to help with relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts from Hurricane Helene, click here.