Every morning, Obie Lee Williams, a father from Georgia, eagerly awaited his daily phone call from his daughter. However, their most recent conversation was filled with anxiety. Kobe Williams, aged 27, informed her father that she and her newborn twins were taking shelter alone in their trailer home in Thomson, as Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc across the southeastern region.
Later that day, one of her brothers braved the obstacles of fallen trees and downed power lines to visit her. The sight was so distressing that he could hardly bring himself to describe it to his father.
Tragedy struck when a massive tree crashed through the roof, claiming the lives of Kobe, together with her two precious newborn sons, Khyzier and Khazmir. Their bodies were discovered lifeless amidst the wreckage.
The storm, which has already claimed 200 lives as of Thursday, has tragically taken the lives of the youngest victims born on August 20. In addition to these infants, a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy from Washington County, Georgia, approximately 50 miles (80 kilometers) to the south, also lost their lives.
In Augusta, the city where the elder Williams resides, power lines stretched along the sidewalks, roads were blocked by tree branches, and utility poles were cracked and broken. As a result, he was trapped in his neighborhood near the South Carolina border for slightly more than a day following the storm’s devastating impact.
According to her father, Kobe, a single mother caring for her newborns, had informed her family that she couldn’t evacuate because of her young babies.
“That was my precious child,” her father expressed with deep emotion. “And she was adored by everyone around her.”