COUPLE FINDS HELP IN HAYWOOD AFTER HARROWING FLOOD ESCAPE 

Over the years, Hadeel Saud Tucker has had a recurring dream. Each time, she was alone in a large body of water, and couldn’t figure out what to do.

On Friday, September 27, she lived the dream.

Here’s how Hadeel and her husband Nathan, an Army helicopter mechanic, came to be on top of a Swannanoa car wash, with racing flood waters inches away, all their belongings gone and with Hadeel clinging to their terrified cat. And also how they ended up in Haywood County, appreciating the warmth of kind people who reached out to help.

The Tuckers were traveling through the area on the 27th, pulling their prized travel trailer. It was a 1983 Leisure Craft that Nathan had meticulously restored. “All that was left to do was to add Hadeel’s turquoise stripe down the side,” Nathan said.

They were on their way to Virginia to tidy up affairs before Nathan, originally from Greenville, KY, reported to a duty station at Fort Blanding, Florida. He’s a Blackhawk mechanic who spent eight years as an Apache crew chief. The couple met in Saudi Arabia, Hadeel’s native country.

They’d reserved a spot at a campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but were turned away because the Parkway had closed as remnants of Hurricane Helene swept in.

Pondering their next step and amazed at the torrential downpour, they drove down into the nearby town of Swannanoa, where Nathan pulled into a self car wash stall to wait out the rain.

But the Swannanoa River was nearby, and soon the collected streams of the Great Craggy Mountains would come rushing down.

When the flash flood came, the Tuckers had little time to react. The water was suddenly knee deep, and Nathan lashed the couple’s Jeep in place with the car wash hoses. Moments later the water was thigh deep. Nathan boosted Hadeel up onto a chest-high ledge and went back to the vehicle to retrieve their cat, Doodle, and essential documents, wallets and phones.

The water kept rising, so they climbed to the car wash roof and called 911, but were told that all rescues had been suspended. It was too dangerous. So they sat in the whirling wind and watched as the muddy current grew closer by the minute. Fortunately, it never quite reached them.

The Jeep, now submerged, stayed put, but the water stripped the travel trailer from its frame and carried it away.

Suddenly the structure’s metal roof collapsed. It fell at an angle as an adjacent wall gave way, and down slid their belongings, their phones and Doodle, who scrabbled at the slick metal. Nathan climbed down, snagged the terrified cat by the nape of the neck, and climbed back up to the remaining high spot, where they all perched, shivering. The rain slackened, but the wind howled, and the floodwaters didn’t abate.

They waited for nine hours.

“There were people who died there,” said Hadeel. “We saw the bodies”

There wasn’t much dry land nearby and no people, but they shouted for help anyway, and eventually someone heard Hadeel’s voice.

“My voice is too deep, and hers is … squeaky” said Nathan, as they laughed.

They were spotted by a drone, which was soon followed by a swift water boat from a New Jersey rescue squad that took them to dry land near the Swannanoa Fire Department. “You’re the girl with the cat!” firefighters said.

Eventually, the Tuckers boarded a bus filled with other stunned survivors, some carrying all they now owned, and were driven to a Red Cross and FEMA-operated shelter in Asheville.

Finding that shelter too crowded, Nathan managed to rent a car. They reserved a motel room in Maggie Valley and drove west, but arrived to find the promised rate had doubled, take it or leave it. Again mulling what to do, the exhausted couple went to an emergency tent at nearby city hall, wearing the only clothes they had – in Nathan’s case his fatigues. There they bumped into Jim Dohmes.

Dohmes, a retiree who lives in Maggie Valley and volunteers locally for Grace Episcopal Church and Mountain Projects, took them under his wing.

He found a spot for them in a neighbor’s guest house, as they now await the attention of the insurance industry and FEMA. Before long they’ll continue their journey.

In the days since the flood Nathan has spent some time helping Jim assist parishioners of Grace Episcopal clear their properties. Hadeel was baptized on Sunday. They managed to replace their phones, and a local business, Byte Me Computers, gifted Nathan a like-new laptop. Mountain Projects helped them assemble a new wardrobe. Nathan, who plays banjo and grew up neighbors with Ralph Stanley, feels right at home.

“I feel like we’re in a Hallmark movie,” he said. “This is the best hospitality we’ve ever had.”

“The people of North Carolina are very warm,” said Hadeel. “I tell Nathan I wake up happy here – these are some amazing people.”
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NOTE TO COMMENTERS: Thanks for commenting. The Tuckers didn’t tell us which motel they visited in Maggie Valley, and we didn’t ask. We chose to focus on the positive.
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To help Mountain Projects meet these kinds of needs, follow this link: https://mountainprojects.org/product/campaign_2023/

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Learn more about Grace Church in the Mountains, Episcopal at https://www.gracewaynesville.com/
Learn more about Byte Me Computers at http://bytemecomputers.net/
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Story produced by Buris Chalmers Communications in support of Mountain Projects.

Writing: Bill Graham
Editing: Angeline Schwab
Photos: Angie Schwab and Jim Dohmes