ASHEVILLE – A single, pink rose blossomed on a scraggly bush next to where the front wall of the Drye family home stood until 16 days ago, the plant’s greenery a welcomed brightness amid the mud-coated land.
Two thorny offshoots, each holding a single, unopened bud, clung defiantly to the bush. Despite floodwaters rising 27 feet above Swannanoa River Road, the plant persevered, its leaves now soaking up the bright Asheville sun.
At first glance, the rose bush appeared largely unremarkable. It was a feat that it survived Tropical Storm Helene’s flooding. But several other plants and at least one tree also remained standing when the waters receded.
But it was the trio of roses that Megan Drye took solace in on a Sunday afternoon in mid-October. She believes they are a sign from her parents and young son, who perished when the family’s home collapsed into the Swannanoa River on Sept. 27.
Megan, 39, was the sole survivor of the flood, which killed 7-year-old Micah Drye and Nora and Michael Drye, both 73.
In the wake of Helene’s devastating blow to the family, Megan and her two sisters, who live out of state, are trying to pick up the pieces. While each day is a struggle, they’re focused on remembering their family for how they lived, rather than the tragedy of their deaths.
“Micah was a piece of all of us,” Megan told the Citizen Times Oct. 13. “He was silent — he was actually quite shy until he opened up, just like mom, and then he was your best friend.
“And he was affectionate, just like my dad and me,” she continued. “He got a little piece of everyone.”
READ: 2 brothers killed in flood loved superheroes, cows. 21 Buncombe students still unaccounted for
Drye sisters await news as the flood comes
The last two weeks were a blur for the Drye sisters.
When floodwaters forced the family to the roof, Megan texted sisters Heather Kephart and Jess Drye Turner, telling the women they had escaped to the highest spot in their home. Though cell service was already knocked out, Megan had upgraded to the iPhone 16 a week before. The new iPhones allow for satellite messaging when there’s no cell or Wi-Fi coverage.
Jess quickly took to Facebook to document the increasingly-frightening situation.
“They are watching 18-wheelers and cars floating by,” she wrote on Facebook at 1:46 p.m. on Sept. 27. “This is definitely a moment when faith is all you have. God knows the outcome already.”
About 30 minutes later, she added a photo that Megan had sent, which has since gone viral. It showed Megan’s white sneakers on the roof of the home, water nearly reaching the eaves. Two hours later, she added a second photo, which also received thousands of interactions.
Jess’ next update wasn’t for almost 11 more hours, just before 3 a.m. on Sept. 28.
Her parents and nephew had drowned, she wrote. Megan was also plunged into the river during the home’s collapse, but she was rescued after becoming wedged between storage containers. They weren’t sure, however, where their sister was taken.
By 4:12 a.m., Jess and her husband were preparing to head to Western North Carolina from Texas. They’d arrive by noon that day, she wrote in the Facebook post, which was gaining traction. Could anyone help them find Megan?
The plea paid off.
A nurse who worked at the hospital where Megan was brought was made aware of the post. She alerted her director, who allowed the sisters to speak on the phone.
Megan was relatively unharmed, suffering only a broken ankle and hypothermia. She spent a single night in the hospital.
“Whoever it was that contacted someone they know in the hospital to see if she was there, I can never thank you enough for what you’ve done,” Jess later wrote on Facebook.
A mother watches as her son, parents are swept away
Once Jessica and Heather were reunited with Megan, and she recounted what occurred.
The family was on the roof for hours as the floodwaters rushed by them. Eventually, the house gave way.
The group managed to temporarily remain to the roof, which was floating. Then, power lines and trees dislodged Megan and Michael from their spot. Nora and Micah, who were nearby, managed to remain in place.
As Michael began to slide toward the water, Megan tried to grab him, she said. Unsuccessful, they both fell in.
Megan briefly managed to get back out of the water, but not for long. She could no longer see her mom or son. She could hear the 7-year-old scream, however.
“Jesus, save me!” she remembers him crying.
Then, “chaos happened,” she said.
Megan watched as her father floated by. The current was so strong that it moved tractor-trailers like twigs.
Soon after, Nora began screaming for Micah. Not long after, she, too, floated by Megan. Micah followed.
Megan, meanwhile, was struggling on her own. She and her dog Bella were stuck in a tree that was felled in the flood, and the water periodically kept pushing her under.
“I just kept thinking, ‘I didn’t know I was going to die today,'” she said. “It was complete panic.”
READ: Asheville woman, 28, among dead, ‘washed away’ in Swannanoa River during Helene, mom says
At some point, she said, she felt a presence within her that guided her next steps.
“‘You have to let go, and you have to let go of everything on you,'” Megan recalled a voice telling her. Letting go included releasing the dog from her arms. “I remember thinking about Bella and saying, ‘I’m so sorry.’ It was loss after loss after loss.”
Yet she listened to what she believed was God and removed her shoes and her backpack and other items. She became light enough that the water stopped pulling her down. Then, she let go to the tree she was clinging to and felt “this peace, this presence, this this calmness that wasn’t me.”
Megan eventually stopped moving after becoming stuck between the two storage trailers. That’s where she later was saved.
“It wasn’t until they finally rescued me that I completely turned, like, human again, and completely crumbled,” she said. “I don’t think that (human) version of me could have survived, so that’s only God or something bigger that that filled me in those moments.”
On Sept. 30, three days after the flood, the family learned search and rescue workers found Micah’s body. He was located about a quarter-mile from where Megan was rescued, which was a mile from where the home once stood, Jess said.
Two days after that, on Oct. 2, search crews found Michael’s body. And three days later, Jess received a call that Nora was found. The “stubborn” woman, Jess said fondly, had kept her backpack on. That’s how first responders were able to identify her.
Remembering their loved ones
In the wake of that horrifying day, the three sisters are turning to one another for comfort. They also take solace in their family memories.
Michael was an empath, Megan and Jess both said, who always found time to comfort anyone in need. A family law attorney, Jess joked that she didn’t know how he pushed through, given he “just absorbed everything about everybody.”
Megan echoed her, saying that even in her most difficult moments, he’d find ways to help.
“Even if I was giving the most rejecting type of demeanor, he would still be there and push and push,” she said. “He’d remind me that he loves me, remind me that God loves me and remind me that I could do all things through Him.”
Nora, meanwhile, was a strong woman who would do anything for her family.
While it may have appeared to some that she had an outer shell, Jess said, it was only because she was choosy who she gave her energy to. Nora stepped in to help Megan, a single mom, more times than she can count.
“She was my constant, the person I did everything with” Megan said. “Our bond was different because of the presence she filled in mine and Micah’s lives.”
And little Micah.
A student at Haw Creek Elementary School, he was gentle and affectionate, a lover of superheroes and dinosaurs and Legos. He was one of several Helene victims who attended Buncombe County Schools.
He was brave, too, Megan said.
One night prior to moving to her parents’ home, Megan heard her son in their apartment. He wanted an evening snack, but it was dark out and the kitchen lights were off. He was scared.
“‘Be brave Micah, be brave,'” Megan heard him say. He eventually mustered up the courage to run in and out of the room and fill his small belly.
“He really, truly believed that he could conquer anything, even at that small age,” Megan said. “He was just confident that he was always protected and secure.”
As she later thought back to the roses that remain outside her family’s home, she was even more convinced the flowers were her family’s spirits.
Micah, Nora and Michael were all strong and beautiful in their own way, pushing through any hardship that came up — even if it was just a dark kitchen. Much like the roses, they bloomed more vividly after a challenge.
As she thought about the plants, the sadness in Megan’s voice abated.
“The seeds that are planted and the roots that are embedded can’t be taken away, and they will come back and bloom again” Megan said. “I believe that’s a sign, that that’s them saying, ‘Hello, It’s bigger than us.’ It’s bigger than anything earthly.”
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Isabel Hughes is a Delaware-based public safety reporter aiding the Asheville Citizen Times with post-Helene coverage. She can be reached at ihughes@delawareonline.com. For all things breaking news, follow her on X at @izzihughes_
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: 3 in Asheville family killed by Helene flood remembered for resilience
