Moment Hurricane Helene floods swept away missing middle school teacher's home with her inside, as death toll surges

A North Carolina middle school teacher's home was snapped being swept away with her inside during the Hurricane Helene chaos which has killed at least 130.  

Kim Ashby was last seen floating down the Elk River in Elk Park, North Carolina, after her holiday home was ripped from its foundation by floodwaters.

She went to the property on Friday to retrieve her belongings as the waters began to surge, but was swept away before she could leave. 

Ashby's stricken family have not heard from her since. 

Elk Park is part of the Blue Ridge Mountains and lies 75 north of the city of Asheville which was also decimated by water and mud after the storm moved up the coast on Friday. 

Asheville had thrived in recent years and become one of America's coolest cities, famed for its culture and food scene.

But locals - some of whom moved to Asheville believing it would be safe from climate change - are now unable to find a hot meal, as the city nears crisis point. 

On Monday, WRAL reported that nearly all of the residents of Asheville had been left offline and struggling to reach their loved ones due to a lack of cell service. 

Their struggles pale in comparison to the heartache inflicted on the family of missing teacher Ashby, with at least 130 dead and 600 missing. 

Ashby's loved ones said she was forced to cling onto a mattress when her home was pulled into the water. 

Ashby's daughter Jessica Meidinger said that her mom's husband Rod opened the front door of their home they knew they were in danger. 

She told WRAL: 'He went outside just to check on where the water level was at that time, and he noticed a quarter of the house had already been washed away. As soon as he saw that he was running inside and told her to get dressed.'

Meidinger said that before the couple finished getting dressed the power of the surging water from the Elk River carried the home away with them still inside. 

She added: 'They managed to get on a mattress and just held on. They hit in an embankment or a turn, and the house just kind of collapsed on them. 

'And they started, I guess they were able to grab each other and were floating. At some point, they got hit by a tree and got separated in the water.'

Rod was found on Saturday two miles from their home and is recovering, while Ashby remains missing. 

Search efforts are still ongoing for the beloved teacher who taught at SanLee Middle School in Sanford, North Carolina. 

Christian Chaney, principal of the school, said: 'Tears have been shed. We miss you. And we want you back here safe. We firmly believe that will come to be, and that will happen.'

Meanwhile, roads around Asheville and North Carolina have been so badly-damaged by the Helene floods that some rescuers have been forced to deploy mules to help.  

In a post to Facebook, the Mountain Mule Packer Ranch said they had been using the animals to deliver vital supplies which included insulin. 

Mike Toberer told the Associated Press that he had decided to bring a dozen of the animals to help reach the mountainous areas, with some having roads swept away. 

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper took an aerial tour of the Asheville area and later met with workers distributing meals.

He said: 'This has been an unprecedented storm that has hit western North Carolina. It's requiring an unprecedented response.'

While Mayor Esther Manheimer told NewsNation the once-thriving city was at 'a point of desperation'.

'The roads are washed out, the bridges are washed out and on top of that our communications are wiped out,' she said.

'Most people have spotty cell phone service at best, and those hard to reach areas have nothing. We are still in a crisis mode. This is a very serious situation.'

According to Manheimer, around 600 people are still unaccounted for in Asheville and President Biden will fly over the city on Wednesday to see the damage. 

Images of the destruction caused by the hurricane reveal a wasteland of splintered houses, crushed cargo containers, mud-covered highways, and collapsed communication lines. 

Asheville and many surrounding mountain towns were built in valleys, leaving them especially vulnerable to devastating rain and flooding. 

Plus, the ground already was saturated before Helene arrived, said Christiaan Patterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

'By the time Helene came into the Carolinas, we already had that rain on top of more rain,' Patterson said.

Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones, sometimes within hours.

The death toll from Helene is continuing to rise as authorities across six states including North Carolina slowly make their way through the decimated communities.

Helene smashed into the Florida Gulf Coast on Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane before quickly moving into Georgia. 

It left a trail of destruction in its wake as it tore apart houses, ripped up roads and severed lines of communication. 

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said on Monday at least 25 people in his state had died, including a firefighter responding to emergency calls during the storm and a mother and her 1-month-old twins who were killed by a falling tree.

South Carolina has reported at least 30 dead, making Helene the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the state since Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989, killing 35 people.

And in North Carolina's Buncombe County, which includes Asheville, 40 people have died, the county manager has stated. 

The sheriff's office in Pinellas County, Florida, published a grim litany of the nine people left dead there so far, almost all of whom were found in their homes.

Nearly all appeared to have drowned, it said, while the others were buried under debris.

The government, states, and localities are all now engaged in a huge recovery effort as people still remain without water or power. 

President Biden told reporters at the White House: 'There's nothing like wondering, 'is my husband, wife, son, daughter, mother, father alive?

'Many more will remain without electricity, water, food and communications, and whose homes and businesses are washed away in an instant. I want them to know we're not leaving until the job is done.'

Damage estimates ranged from $15billion to more than $100billion, insurers and forecasters said over the weekend, as water systems, communications and critical transportation routes were affected.

Property damage and lost economic output will become clearer as officials assess the destruction.