As Hurricane Helene roared outside, the wind howling and branches snapping, John Savage went to his grandparents' bedroom to make sure they were OK. "We heard one snap and I remember going back there and checking on them," the 22-year-old said of his grandparents, Marcia, 74, and Jerry, 78, who were lying in bed. "They were both fine," he told the AP. But not long after, Savage and his father heard a "boom"—the sound of one of the biggest trees on the property in Beech Island, South Carolina, crashing on top of his grandparents' bedroom and killing them. "All you could see was ceiling and tree," he said. "I was just going through sheer panic at that point."
John Savage said his grandparents were found hugging one another in the bed, adding that the family thinks it was God's plan to take them together, rather than one suffer without the other. "When they pulled them out of there, my grandpa apparently heard the tree snap beforehand and rolled over to try and protect my grandmother," he said. They are among the more than 150 people confirmed dead in one of the deadliest storms in US history. Dozens died just like the Savages, victims of trees that fell on homes or cars. The dead include two South Carolina firefighters killed when a tree fell on their truck.
Jerry Savage did all sorts of handy work, but he worked mostly as an electrician and a carpenter. He went "in and out of retirement because he got bored," said John Savage, who'd been staying with his grandparents for the last few years. Tammy Estep, 54, called her father a "doer" and the hardest worker she knew. Marcia Savage was a retired bank teller. She was very active at their church, had a beautiful voice, and was always singing—especially gospel, said granddaughter Katherine Savage, 27. The couple were teenage sweethearts and married for over 50 years. Estep said their love was "immediate, and it was everlasting." "They loved each other to their dying day," said John Savage. (More Hurricane Helene stories.)
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