By TRAVIS LOLLER Associated Press
The remains of the final missing Tennessee victim from Hurricane Helene were found two years after the storm devastated Appalachian mountain towns with floods that wiped away whole communities.
Nancy Tucker, 76, disappeared along with her husband Jimmy Tucker when flooding from the Nolichucky River took their home in rural Washington County in the northeastern corner of Tennessee on Sept. 27, 2024. His body was recovered within a couple of days, but hers had been missing until Saturday, said Susan Saylor, spokesperson for the Washington County Sheriff’s Department. Their son lived in the home as well but was at work when the flood hit, Saylor said.
Helene killed more than 250 people and caused nearly $80 billion in damage from Florida to the Carolinas. In the mountains on the North Carolina-Tennessee border, rains of up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) turned usually gentle streams into torrents that moved trees, boulders, homes and vehicles, and shattered century-old flood records. Many of those killed were swept away in the flooding. In North Carolina, the body of Alena Ayers has never been recovered. Her case prompted the North Carolina legislature last year to establish Alena’s Law, making it easier to declare a person dead if they disappear during a natural disaster.
In Tennessee, first responders over the past two years had narrowed down the search area for Nancy Tucker to a portion of the Cherokee National Forest called Jackson Island. However, they faced both physical and bureaucratic hurdles. James Matthews, with the local Emergency Management Agency, said that since February, search crews had logged over 400 miles (644 kilometers) walking through the area but could not search through the debris piles. Some reached 40 feet (12 meters) high in places and, in addition to trees and rocks, were filled with things like cars and large propane tanks.
Because the area was federal land and thought to contain Native American burial sites, local responders were not allowed to bring in the heavy equipment needed for debris removal, Saylor said. They had to wait for action from the federal government, which only awarded a contract for the removal work this summer.
“On Saturday, I got the call that I’ve been waiting for for two years — just four days after the operation began,” Matthews said. Nancy Tucker’s remains were discovered on Saturday but removal of the remains continued into Sunday evening. Matthews was among the group that was at the site on Sunday.
“The moment we found a clear indication that this was Mrs. Tucker, everyone on the scene — we stopped. We cried. All of us cried. And we prayed,” he said.
The final, positive identification was made by a medical examiner on Monday afternoon.
An obituary for Jimmy Tucker from 2024 said that he and Nancy met while they were both serving in the U.S. Army and were married for 44 years.
When asked why first responders never gave up the search, Saylor noted that Washington County Sheriff Keith Sexton had vowed to recover every missing person after the storm.
“Why would you not want to bring what you could bring to the family, who had already lost a father?” Saylor asked. “There was never a question of stopping.”