Marcia, 74, and Jerry Savage, 78, were found hugging each other in bed after the tree crashed through the bedroom of their Beech Island home, killing them. Their grandson, John Savage, told The Associated Press he had checked in on his grandparents to make sure they were OK only moments before tragedy struck while Helene raged outside.
“We heard one snap and I remember going back there and checking on them,” the 22-year-old said of his grandparents, who were lying in bed. “They were both fine, the dog was fine.”
But soon after, Savage and his father heard a “boom” as one of the biggest trees on the property crashed on top of his grandparents’ bedroom, crushing them.
All you could see was ceiling and tree,” he said. “I was just going through sheer panic at that point.”
John Savage told the AP his grandparents were found in an embrace in bed, adding that the family believes it was God’s plan to take them together, rather than let one suffer without the other.
“When they pulled them out of there, my grandpa apparently heard the tree snap beforehand and rolled over to try and protect my grandmother,” he said.
Marcia and Jerry Savage were two of the more than 200 deaths that have been reported across six states — Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee — since Helene made landfall last week, according to FOX Weather.
Dozens, like the Savages, were victims of trees that fell on homes or cars. Others lost their lives to flash floods, which destroyed homes, businesses and highway infrastructure across southeast appalachia.
Several people remain missing or unaccounted for, although an exact number has not yet been released.
Jerry Savage was a handyman who worked mostly as an electrician and a carpenter. He went “in and out of retirement because he got bored,” John Savage told the AP. “He’d get that spirit back in him to go back out and work.”
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