After traveling about 200 yards, the home stopped on some higher ground—but then the structure began to break apart. “The last thing I saw, Carl hit the water,” said Linda. He was carried away downstream. “I swam across stream just as hard as I could,” said Carl. “Missed the first tree, missed a second tree, missed the third tree. Finally caught some bushes at the end of the rail there and I thought, oh boy, don’t you break! And I finally got my feet on and got stabilized.” Linda recalled that, every time a log hit the house, she thought she’d sink into the water. Alone in the dark, she had only the light from her watch. “All I could think about was seeing Carl hit the water and go on. I kept praying, repeating the Lord’s prayer, and the 23rd psalm,” she said. “It got kind of eerie, quiet, except the roar of the creek,” recalled Carl. After a few hours in, Carl flagged down a neighbor who called for help. Another hour later, he was rescued by a helicopter. But Linda was stuck in what was left of her home for 16 hours before she was rescued, wrapping herself in blankets to stay warm.
“Only my feet got wet,” she said. “There was a roof over me. I ended up in my little sewing craft room,” Linda said, adding that her sewing machine was still sitting there with her, along with her latest quilt pieces. She was rescued when four men from the community waded to where the house had run aground, cleared piles of debris to get inside, and found Linda in a rocking chair, alive and well. REUNITED “God wasn’t ready for us that day,” said Linda. “We’re old, but you know, we’re here. We’ve heard from people all over the world who have blessed us with their prayers and concern.” “We will tell this for the younger generation,” added Carl. “They might like movies or books—but this is going to sound like one.” Both octogenarians, the Washington County couple has been married for 57 years. They vividly remember volunteering with Brethren Disaster Ministries in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “It was so emotional seeing the people after losing their homes, and the roofs were gone, and we shoveled mud, we put roofs on, and we just thought, ‘Oh, these poor people, how are they going to survive after this?’
“ All I could think about was seeing Carl hit the water and go on.” LINDA MCMURRAY HURRICANE HELENE SURVIVOR
Carl and Linda McMurray moved into their new MDS volunteer-built house in April 2025.
A couple’s harrowing survival
When floodwaters overtook the childhood home of Linda McMurray in Damascus, Virginia, on Sept. 27, 2024, she became more worried about her husband’s life than her own. And her husband, Carl, was desperate to rescue his wife. Though both survived—Linda by floating downstream in the remnants of their home, Carl by clinging to a tree for hours—they will never forget the day Hurricane Helene arrived. They recalled taking lifejackets to the second floor of their home, which had been in Linda’s family for three generations. Carl described the floodwaters arriving “like a bulldozer,” pushing everything out of its way—including their own home!
After flash flooding from Hurricane Helene swept them away, the McMurrays now celebrate their new home—and each other
BEFORE
AFTER
Carl and Linda McMurray’s home (above) in Taylors Valley near Damascus, Virginia, was ripped apart and swept away (right) by Hurricane Helene floodwaters in Sept. 2024.
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behind the hammer
behind the hammer
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