Family plans to honor hurricane victim using logs from fallen tree that killed him

Charles Dean loved living in his South Carolina neighborhood with manicured lawns and towering trees because it reminded him of his childhood growing up in a family that has run a lumber business since the early 1900s.

It was one of those giant trees that ended up killing him when Hurricane Helene whipped through Greenville last week and uprooted a red oak tree that crashed into his apartment.

But rather than discarding the tree, the Deans plan to take some of the logs and craft a beautiful bench, or table or other pieces of furniture and donate the pieces to one of the drug recovery centers where Charles touched many lives, said his brother Matthew Dean.

“Charles helped a lot of people who were alcoholics and drug addicts and if there something we can get out of this is that there’s always hope. There is always hope,” he said.

Days of rain saturated the ground, and as the storm reached the Southeast it whipped up strong winds that uprooted trees and utility poles throughout the region.

Dean is among the more than 200 people confirmed dead in one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history. Many died crushed by trees that fell on homes or cars. The dead in South Carolina include grandparents found hugging one another in the bed and two firefighters killed when a tree fell on their truck.

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As the storm approached on Sept. 27, Charles Dean texted his family that he could hear trees outside his apartment coming down as Hurricane Helene battered his town.

“In the middle of it now, scary,” he texted his brother Matthew Dean and his sister-in-law who were checking on him from 300 miles (480 kilometers) away in North Carolina.

“It’s like mom and dad’s old neighborhood trees, all old growth trees, and they’re going down, frightening,” he texted.

A short time later, a red oak tree about 70 feet (21 meters) tall and 3 fee (1 meter) in diameter crashed into Charles Dean’s second-story apartment, killing him.

“We told him we loved him, and he said that he loved us and that was the last message we had with him,” Matthew Dean said.

The oldest of five brothers, Charles Dean loved to travel and visited much of Europe. One of his favorite trips was a safari in Africa but Spain was among the countries he loved the most.

He loved to cook and bake and watch political news, which he called “pure theater.” He often shared texts with his thoughts about the latest political scandal with his family, his brother said.

Charles Dean loved Barbra Streisand and Elizabeth Taylor and kept up with news about the British royal family.

He moved to Greenville in 2011 and began working as a drug addiction counselor. During the weekend, he also worked at a home improvement store, his brother said.

A recovering alcoholic, he found hope in helping others, Matthew Dean said.

“Never in a million years did we expect to lose Charles,” he said. “He was so healthy and so vibrant and had years to live.”