Hurricane Florence Death Toll Hits 23, Could Rise

Chris Jasurek
9/17/2018
Updated:
9/17/2018

The carnage caused by Hurricane Florence continues to reveal itself as the rain is easing and wreckage is being cleared.

As of noon on Sept. 17, 23 deaths related to the hurricane had been reported. That number could well rise as rescue workers and cleanup crews move into more rural areas, according to SFGate.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said that as of the morning of Sept. 17, 17 people had died as a result of Hurricane Florence in that state.

South Carolina officials said they had confirmed six storm-related deaths there as of the afternoon of Sept. 17, SFGate reported.

An emergency truck drives through Hurricane Florence’s flood water in Grifton, North Carolina on Sept. 16, 2018. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
An emergency truck drives through Hurricane Florence’s flood water in Grifton, North Carolina on Sept. 16, 2018. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)

“We mourn the loss of each and every life and our hearts go out to their friends and their family,” Governor Cooper told SFGate. “We hope there’s not another life lost, but we know that raging rivers are still out there.”

Some of the deaths were truly tragic.

A 3-month-old baby in Gaston County, North Carolina, was crushed to death when a pine tree split outside the family’s mobile home. Half the tree fell across the residence. Both parents were home tending to the child.

Another child, this a 1-year-old, was swept away by floodwaters on Sept. 16. The boy’s body was discovered the next day.

Trapped by a Falling Tree

The Gill family, Olen, Tammy, and 3-month-old Kade, were inside their mobile home on Moses Court in unincorporated Gaston County around 12:45 p.m. on Sept. 16, when a large pine tree outside the home split down the middle and fell.

Kade’s mother, Tammy, was holding him in her arms when the half tree fell right across the middle of their dwelling.

“The tree had divided us,” father Olen Gill told the Gaston Gazette.  “I’m in the kitchen and she’s in the living room on the couch.”

Neighbor Billy Hawkins heard the tree split.

“I brought the dog out and I heard something snap,” said Hawkins. “Then the daddy came out hollering, ’Call 911, Call 911.”

Gill and Hawkins went inside the mobile home where Tammy Gill was trapped under the tree, shouting, “Get my kid, get my kid.”

Flood waters surround a home as the Little River in Spring Lake, North Carolina overflows its banks because of Hurricane Florence, on Sept. 17, 2018. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Flood waters surround a home as the Little River in Spring Lake, North Carolina overflows its banks because of Hurricane Florence, on Sept. 17, 2018. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Hawkins and Gill were able to free the infant. Tammy Gill remained pinned beneath the tree until firefighters from Spencer Mountain Volunteer Fire Department arrived and cut the two-foot-diameter trunk into movable sections.

EMTs took Kade Gill to the hospital, but his injuries were too severe. “They come in the room and said he had head trauma and we didn’t even know,” Tammy Gill told the Gazette.

“They had been doing CPR for the last 30 minutes and they just wanted permission to stop. I said no at first, but after another 30 minutes, he wouldn’t come back.”

Kade Gill became the 17th death related to Hurricane Florence since it hit the North Carolina coast on Sept. 14.

Tammy Gill was treated at CaroMont Regional Medical Center and released.

Child Lost in the Flood

Kaiden Lee-Welch, 1, lost his life after his mother decided to ignore barricades blocking a flooded road.
According to the Charlotte Observer, the boy’s mother was heading east on N.C. 298 through Union County, North Carolina on the evening of Sept. 16, when she came upon barricades blocking the roadway.

The woman drove around the barricades and into the flood. The rushing waters swept her car off the road.

“Her vehicle left the roadway and came to rest amongst a group of trees,” officials from the Union County Sheriff’s Office told the Observer.

“She managed to free herself and Kaiden, who was in a car seat, but lost her grip on him in the rushing water.”

Searchers spent several hours looking for the body that night, but suspended the search around midnight. The body was recovered around 10 a.m. on Sept. 17, the Observer reported.
A road is washed out by the rains from Hurricane Florence as it passed through Fayetteville, North Carolina, Sept. 16, 2018. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A road is washed out by the rains from Hurricane Florence as it passed through Fayetteville, North Carolina, Sept. 16, 2018. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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