Current:Home > ScamsA Tennessee nurse and his dog died trying to save a man from floods driven by Hurricane Helene-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
A Tennessee nurse and his dog died trying to save a man from floods driven by Hurricane Helene
View Date:2024-12-23 20:03:04
As the Hurricane Helene-driven waters rose around the Nolichucky River in Tennessee, Boone McCrary, his girlfriend and his chocolate lab headed out on his fishing boat to search for a man who was stranded by floodwaters that had leveled his home. But the thick debris in the water jammed the boat’s motor, and without power, it slammed into a bridge support and capsized.
McCrary and his dog Moss never made it out of the water alive.
Search teams found McCrary’s boat and his dog’s body two days later, but it took four days to find McCrary, an emergency room nurse whose passion was being on his boat in that river. His girlfriend, Santana Ray, held onto a branch for hours before rescuers reached her.
David Boutin, the man McCrary had set out to rescue, was distraught when he later learned McCrary had died trying to save him.
“I’ve never had anyone risk their life for me,” Boutin told The Associated Press. “From what I hear that was the way he always been. He’s my guardian angel, that’s for sure.”
The 46-year-old recalled how the force of the water swept him out his front door and ripped his dog Buddy — “My best friend, all I have” — from his arms. Boutin was rescued by another team after clinging to tree branches in the raging river for six hours. Buddy is still missing, and Boutin knows he couldn’t have survived.
McCrary was one of 215 people killed by Hurricane Helene’s raging waters and falling trees across six states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia — and was among a group of first responders who perished while trying to save others. The hurricane caused significant damage in nearby Unicoi County, where flooding swept away 11 workers at an plastics factory and forced a rescue mission at an Erwin, Tennessee, hospital.
McCrary, an avid hunter and fisherman, spent his time cruising the waterways that snake around Greeneville, Tennessee. When the hurricane hit, the 32-year-old asked friends on Facebook if anyone needed help, said his sister, Laura Harville. That was how he learned about Boutin.
McCrary, his girlfriend and Moss the dog launched into a flooded neighborhood at about 7 p.m. on Sept. 27 and approached Boutin’s location, but the debris-littered floodwaters clogged the boat’s jet motor. Despite pushing and pulling the throttle, McCrary couldn’t clear the junk and slammed into the bridge about two hours into the rescue attempt.
“I got the first phone call at 8:56 p.m. and I was a nervous wreck,” Harville said. She headed to the bridge and started walking the banks.
Harville organized hundreds of volunteers who used drones, thermal cameras, binoculars and hunting dogs to scour the muddy banks, fending off copperhead snakes, trudging through knee-high muck and fighting through tangled branches. Harville collected items that carried McCrary’s scent — a pillowcase, sock and insoles from his nursing shoes — and stuffed them into mason jars for the canines to sniff.
On Sunday, a drone operator spotted the boat. They found Moss dead nearby, but there was no sign of McCrary.
Searchers had no luck on Monday, “but on Tuesday they noticed vultures flying,” Harville said. That was how they found McCrary’s body, about 21 river miles (33 kilometers) from the bridge where the boat capsized, she said.
The force of the floodwaters carried McCrary under two other bridges, under the highway and over the Nolichucky Dam, she said. The Tennessee Valley Authority said about 1.3 million gallons (4.9 million liters) of water per second was flowing over the dam on the night McCrary was swept away, more than double the flow rate of the dam’s last regulated release nearly a half-century ago.
Boutin, 46, isn’t sure where he will go next. He is staying with his son for a few days and then hopes to get a hotel voucher.
He didn’t learn about McCrary’s fate until the day after he was rescued.
“When the news hit, I didn’t know how to take it,” Boutin told the AP. “I wish I could thank him for giving his life for me.”
Dozens of McCrary’s coworkers at Greenville Community Hospital have posted tributes to him, recalling his kindness and compassion and desire to help others. He “was adamant about living life to the fullest and making sure along the way that you didn’t forget your fellow man or woman and that you helped each other,” Harville said.
McCrary’s last TikTok video posted before the hurricane shows him speeding along the surface of rushing muddy water to the tune, “Wanted Dead or Alive.” He wrote a message along the bottom that read:
“Some people have asked if I had a ‘death wish.’ The truth is that I have a ‘life wish.’ I have a need for feeling the life running through my veins. One thing about me, I may be ‘crazy,’ Perhaps a little reckless at times, but when the time comes to put me in the ground, you can say I lived it all the way.”
___
Bellisle reported from Seattle.
veryGood! (39)
Related
- How to protect your Social Security number from the Dark Web
- Earn less than $100,000 in San Francisco? Then you are considered low income.
- Colorado Court: Oil, Gas Drilling Decisions Can’t Hinge on Public Health
- 2 more Connecticut officers fired after man became paralyzed in police van
- Quincy Jones' cause of death revealed: Reports
- Why Jury Duty's Ronald Gladden Could Be Returning to Your Television Screen
- Why Elizabeth Holmes Still Fascinates: That Voice, the $1 Billion Dollar Lie & an 11-Year Prison Sentence
- See photos of recovered Titan sub debris after catastrophic implosion during Titanic voyage
- J.Crew Outlet Quietly Drops Their Black Friday Deals - Save Up to 70% off Everything, Styles Start at $12
- Texas appeals court rejects death row inmate Rodney Reed's claims of innocence
Ranking
- Pedro Pascal's Sister Lux Pascal Debuts Daring Slit on Red Carpet at Gladiator II Premiere
- How Deep Ocean Wind Turbines Could Power the World
- Get These $118 Lululemon Flared Pants for $58, a $54 Tank Top for $19, $138 Dress for $54, and More
- Supreme Court rejects affirmative action, ending use of race as factor in college admissions
- Horoscopes Today, November 9, 2024
- Zendaya Reacts to Tom Holland’s “Sexiest” Picture Ever After Sharing Sweet Birthday Tribute
- CDC recommends first RSV vaccines for some seniors
- Publishers Clearing House to pay $18.5 million settlement for deceptive sweepstakes practices
Recommendation
-
Chicago Bears will ruin Caleb Williams if they're not careful | Opinion
-
California and Colorado Fires May Be Part of a Climate-Driven Transformation of Wildfires Around the Globe
-
Trump’s Fighting to Keep a Costly, Unreliable Coal Plant Running. TVA Wants to Shut It Down.
-
Iran memo not among the 31 records underlying charges in Trump federal indictment
-
Rafael dissolves into a low pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico after hitting Cuba as a hurricane
-
Heat blamed for more than a dozen deaths in Texas, Louisiana. Here's how to stay safe.
-
Solar Panel Tariff Threat: 8 Questions Homeowners Are Asking
-
U.S. House Hacks Away at Renewable Energy, Efficiency Programs