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 laying in bed. “They were both fine, the dog was fine.”
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.”…