A devoted firefighter in Blackshear, Georgia, lost his life defending others during Hurricane Helene. A 4-year-old who brightened every room she entered in Catawba County, North Carolina, was killed in a head-on collision on a rainy road. A resident of Charlotte, North Carolina, was killed when a tree fell on their house.
The death toll from Hurricane Helene was still being tallied on Friday afternoon. However, authorities said that it had killed over thirty people in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, and the Carolinas as it made landfall in the Southeast as a Category 4 storm overnight.
In Georgia, Blackshear Police Chief Christopher Wright stated in an interview that, based on a preliminary investigation, Vernon Leon Davis and other firefighters had been erecting barricades in an area where a live power line had fallen.
According to Wright, Davis was killed early on Friday morning when a tree fell on top of his pickup truck during a worsening storm after he got inside.
According to Wright, Davis has been an assistant fire chief and has over 30 years of experience, the majority of which he has volunteered for. Wright recalled Davis as “one of the greatest folks that Blackshear had,” going by his middle name, Leon.
“We’re all better for having known him,” Wright stated. “He would do anything for anybody.”
In a group text chat on Thursday morning, Davis, their two sisters, and other family members received a text from Davis’ brother James Carlas Davis, a resident of Mississippi, asking if they were prepared for Helene. He sent them a message expressing his love and included an emoji of praying hands.
As ready as we can be, was the response his brother gave, according to James Davis. He went on to say that he had set up his generator to power his house, where his wife Shirley would be while he was out clearing fallen trees and sandbagging homes to keep the water out.
Davis stated, “That was my last communication with him,” on Friday afternoon, his voice cracking slightly. Knowing that her older brother lost his life defending others gives Rellina Davis Lester some comfort, according to her.
“It’s hard, but he was doing what he loved and that was his calling in life,” she stated.
Authorities in North Carolina reported that a resident of Charlotte was declared deceased early on Friday following the uprooting of a tree onto their house by wind and rain.
And a day earlier, a little girl called Luna Jade Gaddis lost her life when two families’ paths tragically crossed in Catawba County, North Carolina, roughly an hour northwest of Charlotte.
According to a statement from the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, the families’ cars collided just after 8 a.m. ET on Thursday after one of them crossed a road’s centerline and struck the other car head-on.
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According to the statement, the collision occurred during “heavy rain conditions” and resulted in the death of 4-year-old Luna as well as the injuries of three other children who were riding in the cars: a 12-year-old who was hospitalized for potentially fatal injuries, a 2-year-old who was hospitalized for potentially fatal injuries, and a 4-year-old who was hospitalized for non-critical injuries.
The North Carolina State Highway Patrol reports that the drivers of both vehicles, Tiffany Miner Sipe, 34, of Claremont, and Lyndsey Nicole Gaddis, 32, of Catawba, were also taken to the hospital.
According to the statement, charges could be brought after the inquiry is finished, even if the preliminary investigation suggested that impairment was not a contributing factor in the crash.
