Mom Shared Desperate Photos of Helene Flooding from Her Roof Before Son and Parents Drowned: 'Worst Nightmare'

• Megan Drye was sheltering at the top of the home she shared with her parents and her 7-year-old son as the waters from Hurricane Helene rose around them last week in Asheville, N.C.
• All four of them were plunged into the flood when their house collapsed and only Megan survived
• Her family says they have leaned on each other and their faith to make it through

On Friday, Sept. 27, as Hurricane Helene rolled over Florida and deeper into the South, Jessica Turner was texting with sisters Heather and Megan about the unusual weather in their hometown of Asheville, N.C., hundreds of miles away.

It was raining. And raining. And raining.

Megan Drye, Turner’s younger sister, and Drye’s 7-year-old son, Micah, had been living with their parents in Asheville. Drye, 39, just upgraded her phone so she was the only one with cell service during the storm, Turner tells PEOPLE.

Drye also shared photos of the rising water from the roof of their home. 

“We were just joking that ‘thank goodness this isn’t a Jonah situation,’ like in the Bible,” says Turner, 45, an artist who was born and raised in Asheville but now lives near Dallas. “We were teasing, saying that God’s in control of the storm and that they’re going to be okay.”

“We had so much hope,” she says, “and then we lost contact.”

Turner later learned that around 2:45 p.m. local time on Friday, the Drye family’s historic home in Asheville, where 73-year-old patriarch Michael Drye also practiced family law, “collapsed” into the rushing floodwater from Helene.

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The storm carved a furious path across the Southeast after making landfall in Florida late on Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane. More than 150 people have since been killed, according to officials and news reports, and the death toll continues to climb.

Turner’s sister, nephew and her parents, Michael and wife Nora Drye, also 73, temporarily sought refuge on the roof of their house in Asheville amid the hurricane — before being plunged into the water on Friday.

Michael, Nora and Micah all drowned, according to the family. Megan survived.

Turner says now that Megan's photos showed the four of them on the roof, where they were sheltering before the house fell apart. Turner subsequently shared the pictures on social media, in a Facebook post that spread widely on the internet, as she sought prayers and support for her family.

“They are watching 18 wheelers and cars floating by,” she wrote, adding, “This is definitely a moment when faith is all you have.”

When Michael, Nora, Megan and Micah went into the water, they were clinging to each other, Turner believes. (She says she has gotten firsthand details from her sister.) “The current was incredibly strong,” Turner says.

Michael held onto Megan until she “saw the current take him, and she said he was just so scared,” Turner says.

Turner says that Nora was holding onto her grandson, too. But when Megan saw her mother bobbing in the water, the little boy was not with her.

She screamed, “Where’s Micah?”

“[Megan] said she’ll never ever get the look out of her mind. The look of horror on mother’s face was pure defeat,” Turner says. Soon after, Nora went below the water, too.

Megan later told Turner, “I think, Jess, that’s when she gave up because she had lost Micah.”

But after Nora and Micah were separated, Megan later told Turner, she briefly heard her son screaming in the flood – “Jesus, Jesus, help me, help me!”

“We all three believe that that’s when Christ took him,’” Turner says.

Megan, alone, drifted about half a mile.

“I don’t know how she did this. After she watched all three of them disappear, she gets pushed further down and then she grabs onto a tree,” Turner says.

Her sister told her that she heard the voice of God telling her to let go of the tree, to be still and to not fight the water.

“She got pushed down a little bit further and got trapped between two tractor trailers and got cornered. She fought for three hours,” Turner says.

Megan later said the voice told her to shed her shoes and jacket because they were weighing her down, so she did, and then she pushed and climbed until she saw a police officer, according to her sister.

“When they finally rescued her, that’s when she absolutely lost it,” Turner says.

On Saturday, Turner and her other sister, Heather Kephart, traveled to be with Megan, who has been studying nursing and works at a nonprofit. 

About five dozen people have since been confirmed to have died in the Asheville area, though authorities say many of the identities are not yet known.

“We’re struggling so much with three of those being our family,” says Turner.

“I think we would understand it more if it was thousands,” she says, adding, “We’re not angry, just — I don’t think we’re ever going to understand why.”

Megan’s sisters have launched a GoFundMe to help her, writing along with the campaign message that she “lived a mother’s worst nightmare.”

She told Fox Weather that her grief “is unfathomable. I'm sorrowful. I feel broken. But what is the main thing that I take away from grief is the uplifting of all the prayers that I have received."

As she struggled in the floodwaters, Megan said, it was the spirits of her son and parents that buoyed her: “I think all of them carried me through that moment.”

Turner echoes that.

“We just keep thinking we’re going to wake up,” she says. “There are moments when we are so sorrowful.”

But the sisters have clung to their faith and to each other.

“We’ve never been stronger. And I think my mom would be so proud,” Turner says. “I just know they would be so very proud of us right now.”

Her father, she says, was especially proud of the law practice sign outside their home. It’s all that remains in Helene’s wake.

She remembers her dad as “one of the greatest men on the planet" and "so kind. He would do anything for anybody.”

Her mom — described as “feisty” — worked at Kohl's but also did accounting for Michael’s family firm.

“She was always pointing her finger at something and telling somebody what to do,” Turner says. “She’s probably all the way up to heaven, telling Jesus what he should be doing.”