Military Mom Was 'Worried Sick' When She Couldn’t Reach Teen Son After Helene, Then Her Sister Called (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

From left: Michelle Martin, Gabe Martin and Carl Martin.Photo:Courtesy of Michelle Martin

Courtesy of Michelle Martin

A military mom is thankful her 19-year-old son was spared fromHurricane Helene, while the college freshman says he’s still “at a loss for words” after the University of North Carolina Asheville sustained significant damage as a result of the storm.

“I couldn’t have ever imagined that this would take place,” Texas native Gabe Martin tells PEOPLE.

But after barreling through Florida’s Big Bend area as a Category 4 storm on Thursday, Sept. 26, Helene made its way through western North Carolina and wreaked havoc in Buncombe County, where the liberal arts college is located.

“I figured, how bad could it be? We’re in the Appalachian Mountains, I’m in a dormitory made out of brick and I’m going to be perfectly fine,” he says.

Although the dormitories were unscathed and the campus buildings “didn’t necessarily sustain damage unless trees fell on them,” the freshman shares that resources like cell service, power and even water began to dwindle as the city suffered catastrophic flooding.

Over 1,000 miles away, Gabe’s mom Michelle had been tracking the storm as a public affairs employee at North American Aerospace Defense Command and the United States Northern Command in Colorado Springs, Co.

Heavy rains from hurricane Helene caused record flooding and damage on September 28, 2024 in Asheville, North Carolina.Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty

Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty

“No one really expected it to track all the way where it did and create such devastation in the form that it did,” the 47-year-old military mom tells PEOPLE.

On Friday, Sept. 27, Gabe woke up without power.

“The cell towers went out over time that same day,” he continues. “So there was this mass hysteria that had broken out because nobody was able to communicate with the outside world.”

Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty

As the former Marine was waiting anxiously for North Carolina to give her team the go-ahead to start helping, she says that she was “worried sick” about Gabe.

“I called many times and you [couldn’t] get through,” she says. “So the only information I’m getting is what we see here at the Command. And to Gabe’s words, It was devastating to see what was happening to people there and not really knowing where my son was at the time.”

After he was forced to evacuate the campus, he made his way to his aunt’s house in Charlotte. Michelle remembers getting a phone call from her sister on Saturday, Sept. 22, saying, “I’ve received him. He’s here, he’s safe.”

“It was just as you could imagine, just a sigh of relief because I’m watching the devastation on this end and what we’re about to have to go do with our military assets because it was so bad,” she says. “Then just so thankful that he was one of the ones that was spared.”

After traveling to his aunt’s house, Gabe went to Chapel Hill to connect with friends. Then, once he learned his campus had closed, he flew home to Texas, where his dad Carl still lives, once he learned the campus had closed. (Theuniversity saidthey will resume online coursework on Oct. 28, but will remain online for the rest of the semester.)

“Waters in some areas that rose 40 feet and the whole River Arts District was washed away,” the student says. “I mean, reduced to rubble. The businesses don’t stand anymore. It’s just piles of rocks and dirt.”

He says, “I fell in love with the town, and that’s one of the primary reasons I wanted to go to the school.”

Find out how you can help the victims of Hurricane Helenehere.

source: people.com