A North Carolina man will forever be haunted by the loving words his wife screamed before she was killed by flooding caused by Hurricane Helene.
Only seconds after Jamie Guinn saw his wife alive, the mother of four was taken by the raging waters that crushed their home.
And then, their 8-year-old son, who saw his mom swept away, uttered the heartbreaking words, “Daddy, I think mommy’s gone.”
Jamie and Melissa Guinn were only a few weeks from celebrating their 10-year wedding anniversary. According to Melissa’s sister Elizabeth Hensley, the couple, who met 17 years ago, shared a love “you would only ever find in the movies.”
“We are so thankful for [Jamie] being a part of our family and we are so grateful for how much you loved [Melissa]. Because of you she really do get to live her long song,” Hensley writes in a Facebook message dedicated to her sister’s husband.
“She is so beautiful. He loves her more [than] anything,” Hensley writes in a separate post of Melissa and Jamie, days after she learned her beloved sister was dead.
Floods and mudslides
On Friday, September 27, Jamie, Melissa and their 8-year-old son River were sheltering in their Minneapolis, North Carolina home while Hurricane Helene raged through the state, burying communities under water and in the mud.
Overnight the storm quietly reached their community and then Helene made a fierce appearance, leaving the couple aware that their hillside home overlooking the river, was at risk.
“All of a sudden, I heard something. Sounded like an explosion. And me and my wife went running through the house and the back door was shattered,” Jamie tells Fox News of the landslide that was destroying pieces of the home. “So, I ran to go to the garage to get something to block the garage off and our garage was gone.”
And then, their entire home came tumbling down and slid into the river, that had swollen beyond the banks.
“It sounded like a cannon going off. I just remember being crushed by the house falling all around me,” continued Jamie, who later learned he had a fractured spine. “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.”
As Jamie went to grab River, he looked over and saw Melissa standing over the foundation where their home once stood.
“And my wife was still up on the top where the house was…And then she screamed, ‘Babe, watch out!’”
‘Mommy’s gone’
Explaining that he thought she was warning him of “another slide” Jamie turned away from his wife to quickly grab his “little boy,” and throw him “up on the bank” “away from the river.”
And then the father and son raced back to their flattened home where Melissa last stood.
Choking back his tears in the interview with Fox, the man – stepfather to Melissa’s three older sons – continues, “And by the time I turned back around to try to make myself alert…
“She was gone.”
But Jamie couldn’t give up on the woman, who’s described by loved ones as “an all-around sweet soul.”
“So, I went to scream and was screaming for her,” says Jamie, who was still in shock. And then River said, “Daddy, I think mommy’s gone.”
Knowing he had to protect their son, Jamie took River to a neighbor’s place where the two sheltered until the conditions improved.
“Hurricane Helene changed Jamie and his boy’s life’s forever. On Friday his home and everything he owned was washed away,” writes Brandy Burroughs, who organized a GoFundMe in support of the Jamie, who’s left a single father of four boys. “The real tragedy of this event was the passing of his sweet wife Melissa Hensley Guinn…Jamie and the boys are now without their home…The journey will be long for everyone involved and will not be easy.”
Speaking of his heartache, Jamie shares that Melissa was his “absolute best friend.”
“I really don’t know how I’m going to make it without her. We spent every day together. Everything I’ve done, she was involved in the same way as every other,” Jamie said of Melissa. “Just going from having that person in your life every day to literally gone in the blink of an eye, it just shows how often you might take for granted being with someone.”
Reflecting on the devastation caused by Helene, Jamie said he’s still shocked.
“How much the river water rose was just unfathomable. It’s hard to put into words what that was like. It’s stuff that’s not supposed to happen here. It doesn’t happen here,” Jamie said. “We don’t know where, I don’t even know where we begin to start picking up pieces from after this.”
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