A downed tree blocks a road in Greenville on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
Two volunteer firefighters, an English teacher, and two sisters — one a caretaker for the other — were among those who died as Helene swept through the state and in the days that followed.
Across the Southeast, Helene killed more than 230 people. That includes 49 across a dozen counties in South Carolina, making Helene the deadliest storm in state history after it surpassed the 35 people killed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
Most of the deaths were from trees falling on houses, cars, campers and a golf cart, killing 24 people in total. Two people drowned, seven died in car crashes and nine died from medical emergencies, either during the storm or in the days after. The remaining seven died from other causes, including a house fire, a generator running inside, and a suicide, coroner’s offices said.
Coroners determined whether or not a death was caused by the storm based on whether it would have happened regardless of the storm and reported that information to the state, according to the Department of Public Safety.
While many deaths happened Sept. 27, as severe wind and rain destroyed homes along the Georgia border and throughout the Upstate, coroners continued reporting deaths as late as Monday. Among them were people who no longer had access to oxygen because of widespread power outages, cardiac events that happened while cleaning up debris, and car crashes at intersections where the traffic lights weren’t working.
Here are the 49 people who died during and after the storm, according to coroners’ offices, obituaries and news reports.
Aiken County
Jerry Savage, a 78-year-old electrician, and his wife, 74-year-old retired banker Marcia Savage, were killed when a tree crashed through their Beech Island house on Sept. 27.
The elderly couple was found hugging each other in their bed, after Jerry Savage apparently rolled over in an attempt to protect Marcia Savage, family members later told USA Today. Jerry Savage loved oil painting, cars and Harley Davidson motorcycles. Marcia Savage’s “main joy in life was spending time with grandkids and great-grandkids,” according to the couple’s obituary. The couple had two children, four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, according to a webpage raising money to help with funeral expenses.
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Michael Roukous, 29, died after a tree crashed through the house of a bed and breakfast home he was staying at Sept. 27 on Beech Island. Roukous, who lived in Dexter, New York, had recently started a job with Forbes Bros utility construction company after graduating in August from the North American Lineman Training Center in Tennessee. Roukous was an avid outdoorsman and loved hunting with his family and friends, according to his obituary.
Joseph Gullen, 70, was killed Sept. 27 by a fallen tree on Metts Park Circle in Aiken.
David Welch, a 75-year-old in North Augusta, died Sept. 27 of respiratory distress.
Joyce Barfield, 78, died Sept. 29 after her Gloverville house caught fire. She was using a candle because her house lost power during the storm, according to news reports.
Rhonda Gabriel, 66, died Oct. 1 at Aiken Regional Medical Center from respiratory distress. She worked as a manager at Carolina Ale House in Augusta, Georgia, and was passionate about medieval history. She and her husband had five children, according to an obituary.
Paul Linn, 86, died of respiratory distress Oct. 2 in Aiken.
Wayne Dawes, 81, died Oct. 2 of a cardiac event caused by hurricane cleanup at his home in New Ellenton. He was a deacon at Grace Covenant Church of God and a superintendent at Church of the Nazarene and Faith Tabernacle Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He loved home improvement projects, doing yard work, and playing the guitar and singing. Dawes and his wife had three children, according to his obituary.
Douglas Buck, 80, died of a cardiac event Oct. 3 in Aiken.
Randy Harris, 66, died of respiratory distress Oct. 7 at Aiken Regional Medical Center. Harris worked as a maintenance mechanic at Kimberly-Clark in Beech Island “until a tragic accident forced him into retirement,” his obituary reads. Harris enjoyed fishing, hunting and drag racing. Originally from Erwin, Tennessee, he was an avid fan of the Tennessee Volunteers football team. He and his wife of 44 years had two children and three grandchildren, according to his obituary.
Anderson County
Christine Schmeiske, 55, was killed Sept. 27 when a large tree fell across the center of her home in Anderson. Her partner, David Shaw, called her “my everything,” The Post and Courier reported.
Sandy Fisher, 54, died Sept. 27 when a tree fell on her Anderson home. She and her husband had one son and a grandson, according to her obituary.
Bobby Foster, 83, died in a car crash Sept. 27 on Main Street in Pelzer. A driver in an SUV attempted to go around a large tree and downed power lines but hit Foster, who was driving the other direction, head-on, according to the coroner’s office.
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Karen McCall, 60, was found drowned in her overturned car Sept. 28 in Anderson, after being reported missing the morning of Sept. 27. She had two sons and five grandchildren, who called her “Nona,” according to her obituary.
One man died after missing his dialysis treatments because he couldn’t get out of his house. The coroner’s office declined to provide any more information at the family’s request.
Chester County
Two people in Chester County died “from complications due to power loss of over 48 hours,” Deputy Coroner Jenifer Minors said in an email. The coroner’s office declined to release any more information at the families’ requests.
Chesterfield County
Shelby Winburn, 66, died Sept. 27 of a medical emergency in her Chesterfield home. Her family tried to call 911, but the call wouldn’t go through because of outages caused by the storm, according to the coroner’s office. Winburn was a longtime nurse’s aide in home health care and hospitals. She enjoyed fishing and watching her favorite TV shows, “Little House on the Prairie” and “The Conners.” She had two children, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, according to her obituary.
Greenville County
Learnda Lee Palmer, 56, died Sept. 27 after first responders found her trapped under a tree in her Greenville house. She left behind two siblings, three nieces and a nephew, according to her obituary.
Aaron Lance, 40, was killed Sept. 27 by a falling tree outside his home in Marietta. Lance spent 12 years as a team leader for Berry Global, a plastic manufacturing company. In his free time, he was an amateur ham radio operator and a certified General Mobile Radio Service operator. He enjoyed playing with airsoft guns and flying drones with his family, which included his fiancé and two children, according to his obituary.
Charles Dean, 59, was killed Sept. 27 by a tree that fell on his Greenville home. Dean moved to Greenville in 2011 after spending most of his adult life in Washington, DC, and Escondido, California. He was a frequent traveler with a particular love for southern Spain and a wish to one day visit India. He enjoyed cooking and baking, keeping up with the latest political news, and listening to Barbra Streisand and Elizabeth Taylor, according to his obituary.
Moreno Maddox, 68, died after being hit by a tree branch Sept. 27 outside his home in Greenville. An auto mechanic, Maddox loved riding motorcycles and was a member of The Matrix Bike Club. He also liked traveling in an RV and “living off the grid.” He had three daughters and four grandchildren, according to his obituary.
James Parrish, 47, died at a hospital Sept. 29 in a motorcycle crash near Greenville. A driver swerved to avoid a downed tree in the road and hit Parrish instead. At different points in his life, Parrish worked as a truck driver, construction worker and forklift operator. Along with riding his motorcycle, he loved music, vintage cars and ranch dressing. He had three daughters and five grandchildren, according to his obituary.
Ceresa Butler, 54, died in a fire Sept. 29 at her Greenville home, according to the coroner’s office. Butler had an associate’s degree from Brown Mackie College. She and her husband had one son, two daughters and four grandchildren, according to her obituary.
Alexander Fields, 26, died Oct. 2 in a motorcycle crash at a Greenville intersection. A car turning left crashed into Fields while he was driving through an intersection where the lights were not working because of the storm. Fields was a Marine Corps veteran and a maintenance supervisor for Greenville Arms Apartments. He and his wife had two children, according to his obituary.
Greenwood County
John Patterson, 66, died Sept. 27 from blunt force trauma to the head after a tree fell through his Greenwood home. Originally from McCormick, he worked for Georgia-Pacific manufacturing company for more than 20 years before retiring. He was a diehard Miami Dolphins football fan and “always had a positive outlook,” his obituary reads. Patterson had four children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild, according to his obituary.
Laurens County
Richard Rathbone, 31, and Thomas Lawson, 41, were killed Sept. 27 when a tree fell on their car in Clinton, according to The Clinton Chronicle. Lawson loved fishing, Clemson football games and spending time with his family, including his wife and their three children, according to his obituary.
Carl Bailey, 54, died when a tree fell on his camper, The Clinton Chronicle reported.
Newberry County
Husband and wife Robert Wise, 49, and Valencia Jones Wise, 48, died Sept. 27 when a tree fell on their car.
Timothy Merchant, 69, died Sept. 29 after being unable to keep his medication regulated while the power was out. Merchant was a retired textile worker who “loved hunting and fishing more than anything,” his obituary reads. He and his late wife had a son, granddaughter and great-grandson, according to his obituary.
A 35-year-old woman died by suicide because of increased depression and anxiety from the storm.
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Ann Stone, died Oct. 2, her 75th birthday, after falling while cleaning up storm debris in her yard. Stone worked at Prisma Health Richland Memorial Hospital for 30 years. She taught classes in oncology and hematology before later working with dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. After retiring in 2015, she became a substitute nurse for Newberry County School District. She attended every sports game she could for her three children, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, according to her obituary.
Richland County
Neva Rouse, 77, died Sept. 27 when a tree fell on her camper in Columbia. Rouse enjoyed quilting, reading, gardening, cooking and caring for animals. She had three children, including one who died before her, as well as three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, according to her obituary.
Saluda County
Volunteer firefighters Chad Satcher, 53, and Landon Bodie, 18, were killed Sept. 27 when a tree fell on their truck while they were responding to a fire.
Satcher became fire chief in 2023, after nearly 35 years working for the Circle Volunteer Fire Department in Leesville. He was also a licensed plumber and worked for nearly 35 years as a foreman for Derrick Plumbing, balancing that work with “an unwavering passion for firefighting,” his obituary reads. He was named fireman of the year eight times at his department and once for all of Saluda County. Satcher and his wife of 23 years had one son, who is also a firefighter, according to his obituary.
Bodie had recently graduated from Blythewood High School, where he was a Future Farmers of America member. He loved working with his hands, and he spent hours learning carpentry skills from his grandfather. In his free time, he would go hunting and fishing, according to his obituary.
One other person died in Saluda County on Sept. 27 after a tree fell on their home. The coroner’s office declined to release any additional information.
Spartanburg County
Jimmy Wall, 68, died Sept. 27 at his home in Chesnee after running a generator inside. Wall “loved coffee, a corny joke, good old-time gospel hymns” and his Bible, his obituary reads. He also loved fishing and hunting whitetail deer. He was always looking for ways to help people, including on a mission trip to Nicaragua with Chosen Children Ministries. Wall and his wife of 48 years had three daughters and two grandchildren, according to his obituary.
Alvaro Burgos Gutierrez, 41, was killed Sept. 27 when a tree fell on his camper in Chesnee. He moved from Nicaragua to America to better support his wife, his 8-year-old daughter and his 90-year-old mother. Friends are raising money to send Gutierrez’s body back to his family in Nicaragua, according to a fundraising site.
Ralph Selle, an 88-year-old from Columbus, North Carolina, died Sept. 27 after his vehicle was submerged on a flooded Landrum road.
Christopher Owens, 64, and Gene Pitts, 70, were killed Sept. 27 when a tree fell on their golf cart while they were surveying damage to a neighbor’s house.
Owens spent years working as a golf course superintendent before changing careers to become an underground supervisor for Pike Electric. His career with the utility company ended after an accident, and Owens became chairman of deacons at First Baptist Church Landrum. He also led a weekly men’s Bible study at nearby Tyger River Correctional Facility. He had double knee surgery and a liver transplant after being diagnosed with cancer, according to his obituary.
Pitts worked in real estate and ran several businesses. He was a member of the Landrum Youth Association, where he served on the board and coached multiple sports teams for his six children and 12 grandchildren. When he wasn’t watching his children play sports, he enjoyed biking, deep sea fishing, and vacationing to Destin, Florida, with his wife, according to his obituary.
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Annamaria Fletcher, 34, died Sept. 27 when a tree fell on her Inman home. Fletcher taught English at Boiling Springs High School. She frequently went to concerts, including for her favorite band, Def Leppard. Her other passions included animals, sunflowers and traveling to Seaport Village in San Diego, according to her obituary.
Ann Farr, 77, and Faye Farr Webber, 86, died Oct. 1 in a car crash because a traffic light wasn’t working from widespread power outages. The sisters grew up on a Union farm with four other siblings. Farr, born with cerebral palsy, raised egg-laying chickens and made “the best cornbread in Pea Ridge,” the community where she grew up, her obituary reads.
Webber became Farr’s main caregiver after their mother’s death in 2009. Webber retired from Lockhart Textile Mill, where she worked in the business department. She grew fresh vegetables in her garden and enjoyed cooking for her family, including her late husband of 60 years, their daughter, and their three grandchildren, according to her obituary.
Lester Brown, 79, died Oct. 2 in a car crash near Inman. He and another driver collided after both were trying to stop to avoid a fallen tree in the road, according to the coroner’s office.
York County
Victoria Leger, 66, was hit by a truck Sept. 28 while cutting a fallen tree with three other people. She died at the hospital. Leger enjoyed riding her horse and sharing quiet moments with her loved ones. Leger and her husband had two children, one of whom died before her, as well as four grandchildren and one great-grandchild, according to her obituary.