A poignant moment occurred live on Fox Weather when a morning show anchor was overcome with emotion after listening to a mother share the heartbreaking details of her son’s final moments during the catastrophic floods caused by Hurricane Helene.
The storm, which made landfall in Florida a week ago, has wreaked havoc across the southeastern United States. According to NBC News, the official death toll has now risen to at least 204, with hundreds more still unaccounted for as rescue operations are ongoing.
During a live broadcast on Thursday, a Fox News weather anchor became visibly emotional as the mother of 7-year-old Micah, one of the young flood victims, recounted the final moments of her son’s life. Micah had been sitting on the roof of his home in Asheville, N.C., with his grandparents when the floodwaters rose and swept them all away.
Through tears, Micah’s mother shared poignant memories of her son’s faith and bravery in those last moments.
“You know, I’m so proud of my son because in his last moments, he wasn’t screaming for me,” she said. “He was screaming, ‘Jesus, Jesus, save me.’ And in that moment, I believe he found peace. He reached for something beyond this world, and he became my hero.
The anchor struggled to maintain composure as the mother recounted how her son, a child who had always dreamed of becoming a superhero, had instead become her hero in his final moments.
“In his last breath, he called upon God, and I think that is what gave him peace,” the mother continued. “He wasn’t scared, he wasn’t afraid—he had joy, even as the flood took him away.
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The impact of Hurricane Helene has been profoundly felt across the nation, and Micah’s story underscores the personal tragedies faced by countless families affected by the storm. North Carolina has been especially hard-hit, with more than half of the confirmed fatalities occurring in the state.
Many communities were entirely submerged as rapidly rising waters devastated towns and cities, destroying homes, businesses, and infrastructure. Local officials have reported challenges in identifying some of the deceased due to the severity of the flooding.
Rescue operations continue as officials and volunteers tirelessly search for those still missing in the wake of the flooding. The extent of the destruction has complicated these efforts, with some areas completely isolated due to submerged roads and damaged infrastructure.
Communities are now embarking on the lengthy recovery process, many grappling with the daunting challenge of rebuilding their homes and lives from the ground up.
In Florida, meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to this week’s dockworker strike—seen by many as compounding the problems caused by Helene—by ordering National Guard troops to ports to keep them open and operating while simultaneously trashing the Biden-Harris administration for not doing anything to mitigate the strike or its impact on global and domestic trade.
DeSantis made the announcement early Thursday, saying that the Florida National Guard and Florida State Guard were being deployed to “critical ports affected to maintain order and, if possible, resume operations which would otherwise be shut down during this interruption.”
“And I would say that this is something that would have significant impacts on the nation’s economy anyways, but to have this happen in a way that could negatively impact people that are reeling from a Category 4 Hurricane, that is just simply unacceptable,” DeSantis said.
“So it really is incumbent upon the Biden-Harris administration to do everything in their power to ensure that these goods are where [they] need to be, that people are not left hanging out in the cold waiting for these goods if they’re sitting in the ocean somewhere and they’re not being able to be used here in the state of Florida or in Georgia or in North Carolina, or where people are going to desperately need this,” DeSantis added.
