Man Dives Into Raging Water to Save Woman Caught in Helene Floodwaters, Then Starts GoFundMe to Help Her Rebuild

Mar. 15, 2025

Courtesy of Eddie Hunnell

Eddie Hunnell was in western North Carolina last weekend to celebrate his son’s wedding, which put him in the right place to dive into ragingHurricane Helenestorm waters to rescue a woman in need.

“I couldn’t leave her,” Hunnell, a 57-year-old engineer in Holly Springs, N.C., tells PEOPLE. “I couldn’t watch her die.”

Around 2:30 p.m., Hunnell was in the hotel lounge when he overheard someone tell the B&B owner that a woman was trapped in her house about 250 yards up the road. “I said, ‘Guys, let’s go. Let’s see what we can do to help,’ " he recalls.

After getting there, Hunnell says he spoke to Phil Worth, who said the woman was his wife Leslie.

The water was “moving too fast” to get the canoe up to the house, so instead he yelled over the loud, raging waters to Leslie, telling her that if the house started moving, she needed to jump into the water.

“I didn’t want the house to collapse on her because she’d surely drown,” Hunnell explains.

Then, Hunnell saw the roof of another house floating down the river, and he knew it was only a matter of time before it struck the home Leslie was trapped in. When it did, he says it wasn’t long before Leslie’s home “started coming apart.”

As the back of the house fell away, Hunnell saw Leslie standing in the second-story bedroom wearing a life jacket. “So I yelled, ‘Jump, jump,’ " he says.

Eddie Hunnell rescuing Leslie Worth.Courtesy of Eddie Hunnell

After she jumped into the water, Hunnell tried to get her in the canoe, but the conditions made that too difficult. So Hunnell, who grew up swimming in rivers, came up with a new plan: He was going to get in the water and swim to her.

“I had told her to jump and she did. I couldn’t leave her,” he says, adding that he “felt like I had enough swimming ability that I could get her out.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

When Hunnell reached her, he grabbed onto the back of the life vest she was wearing. “I said, “I’ve got you. Just kick,' ” he recalls.

And after about 250 yards of riding the current, he was finally able to make it toward the shore to the point where he was able to stand up and walk them the rest of the way.

Although Hunnell’s wife was overjoyed to see them, he says she had a visceral reaction of her own — “sobbing” to see him.

“She didn’t want to have a wedding and a funeral the same day,” he says.

Leslie Worth and her husband.Courtesy of Eddie Hunnell

That night, the couple joined Hunnell and his family at his son’s rehearsal dinner. “They had nowhere to go, nothing to eat, nowhere to go to stay warm,” he says.

He started aGoFundMeto help the couple, and made the first donation himself.

“There was only one thing in that house you couldn’t replace — and that was Leslie,” he says. “The family is overjoyed. It’s causing me to tear up here. Sorry. So for that reason, of course I’m very happy I did it.”

In a message to PEOPLE, Phil adds of Eddie, “he is a true hero.”

source: people.com