Body of woman drowned in Helene flooding returned to family two weeks after storm

It took two weeks for a family in North Carolina to be reunited with the remains of their daughter after she was swept to her death by a flood in the wake of Hurricane Helene – just one of many traumatic incidents as communities continue to grapple with upended lives three weeks after the storm.

First, with no word of her fate and then told she’d been killed, Colette and Fadi Zoobi, of Huntersville, were swallowed up in shock and heartbreak.

Their daughter, 28-year-old Samira Zoobi, was living in Asheville, which was severely hit even though the hurricane came ashore more than 400 miles south, in Florida.

She was washed away during the storm that continued the day after landfall, on Friday, 27 September. Samira’s complex, Riverview Apartments, became engulfed by the swollen Swannanoa River and she was unable to grab hold of ropes that rescue crews had thrown to assist her.

Samira’s boyfriend in Asheville scoured riverbanks and floodwaters that weekend, while her parents made frantic calls. Four days after she was last known to be alive authorities told the family Samira had been found dead.

“It’s just been devastating” Colette Zoobi said. Even then, however, her daughter’s body ended up on an excruciating odyssey.

The family called the morgue in Asheville, as well as local authorities and the state’s medical examiner’s office.

Initially, Colette said she was told that Samira’s body was at the Asheville morgue. A day later, a victim advocacy representative told her Samira had been sent to a morgue in Raleigh, 250 miles away, where storm victims’ remains were also being examined.

Then Colette’s local funeral home in Huntersville called Raleigh and was told that Samira’s remains had been sent back to Asheville. But when Colette called that morgue again, they couldn’t find Samira’s body, she told the Guardian.

Communities in western North Carolina have been reeling since the storm ravaged the region, killing about 100 people there. It was the worst death toll of the many states hit by Helene, and it could still rise.

Many drowned, others were crushed by their collapsing homes, as well as by landslides, falling trees, falling debris and mudslides.

Samira Zoobi. Photograph: Courtesy of the Zoobi family

Bewildered, frustrated and grief-stricken, Colette began contacting state representatives and the governor’s office for help.

“It was just so uncoordinated” she said. “They need to communicate what the process is like when they’re finding people, to let the families know what’s going on and that they’re being processed.”

On 9 October, the police called Colette and finally, later that day, they were told that Samira’s body had just been sent back to Asheville and was going to be released by the medical examiner.

On Thursday, 10 October, the funeral home in Huntersville sent a team to Asheville to bring Samira home to her parents. The next day, two weeks after Samira was swept away, Colette and Fadi Zoobi were reunited with her remains and had a chance to view their daughter.

Fadi went into the room to see Samira, but Colette stayed outside. “I just couldn’t do that,” she said.

“I just think no one was prepared for anything like this,” Colette said of the process of handling the bodies and the destruction and chaos caused by the storm. “I think if they had gotten someone to handle those logistics in there right away maybe it wouldn’t have taken almost two weeks for us to get her back, but I’m sure they are totally overwhelmed.”

The communities in western North Carolina still need “a lot of support”, Colette said. “It’s not even close to being over yet, they still don’t have water in a lot of the areas, it’s just devastating.”

On Tuesday of this week, the North Carolina governor, Roy Cooper, said at a news conference that workers had made significant progress in restoring power, water and cell service, as well as opening roads and distributing critical supplies. But he added that 92 people were still unaccounted for in the state and almost 2,000 people have not been able to return home and are in federal shelters.

Kelley Richardson, a spokesperson for the state’s department of health and human services, said that the bodies of everyone killed were being tracked and cared for at one of three facilities, in Asheville, Raleigh and Charlotte, with the more complex cases being sent to Raleigh.

“All efforts are being made throughout the process and at all three facilities to quickly and accurately identify these individuals and return them to their loved ones,” Richardson said, adding that “every death has its own unique set of facts and circumstances, and the length of time to complete a case can vary”.

Colette said she hoped other families weren’t having to go though what hers had been through.

“I’m hoping now that, since other agencies have gotten involved, their process is running a little bit smoother,” she said.

The family will hold a celebration of Samira’s life on 26 October in Huntersville.

Samira was creative, her mother said. Asheville’s flourishing arts community was decimated the storm. Samira worked as a graphic designer at the Asheville T-Shirt Company, where many called her Sami.

At the service, the family plans to distribute copies of some of Samira’s artwork, along with a print of a watercolor painting of her by a friend.

“I just want to try to make this as positive and uplifting as possible,” Colette said.