Eddie Hunnell was in Holly Springs, NC for his son’s wedding at the peak of Helene’s wrath when they got word a woman was trapped in a flooded home down the street, and the situation was becoming more dire by the second.
GRASSY CREEK, N.C. – Eddie Hunnell jumped head-first into a raging North Carolina river to save a woman who was swept into the current by powerful Hurricane Helene floodwater.
The daring rescue occurred in the mountainous town of Grassy Creek, where heavy rainfall from Helene sent the New River surging over its banks.
Hunnell was in town for his son’s wedding. He and family members were getting ready for the rehearsal dinner when the storm continued to intensify, with trees falling and river waters rising.
Through the trees, the home could be seen floating down the river.
(Eddie Hunnell / FOX Weather)
As Hunnell and his family were waiting to see whether the storm would need to cancel the dinner, Hunnell said he saw multiple homes caught in the surging river.
“And somebody came in and said, ‘There’s a woman trapped in the house right up the road.’ And so the entire group of us that were there, about 15 people went up to see if we could help,” Hunnell said.
In one of those homes, he saw a woman standing on the second floor and wearing a lifejacket.
“We had tried to figure out how we could get her out, but the water was 10 feet deep and just roaring by the house,” he said.
Then the situation became even more desperate.
“The house started moving, floating down the river and falling apart,” Hunnell said. “I didn’t want her trapped in it.”
Hunnell, along with the people he was with, urged the woman to jump into the river – and she did.
“I couldn’t get to her in that canoe there,” he said. “And I didn’t see another option. I didn’t want her to see her drowned. And so I jumped in to get to her.”
Hunnell hugging the woman he saved.
(Eddie Hunnell / FOX Weather)
Video of the incident shows Hunnell swimming towards the woman.
“The biggest concern other than the fast water was the debris in it,” he said. “I didn’t want that house to come down on us. We went through that 150 yards of really fast water, and there were obstructions on both sides. And we just had to ride that out. After that 150 yards or so, I was holding on to the back of her life vest and the river spread out a little bit, got wider, and those obstructions ended.”
He was able to side swim with her out of the rapids and eventually back to shore where she had an emotional reunion with her husband.
“We got out, reunited her with her husband and then, you know, it was over. And then it was back to thinking about the wedding,” he said. “We invited them to the rehearsal dinner,” though he added the rehearsal part was canceled.
The wedding did go as planned on Saturday with reminders of nature’s destructive powers.
“And so we had had a nice wedding – in that picture… you can see the debris in the grass,” he said.
“Behind that debris is from, you know, some of it from their house, from the worst house. It was the hardest thing watching somebody lose their house right in front of them. That was very hard. I had seen four other houses that day go down the river. So I saw at least five houses, you know, five people’s lives torn apart.”