South Carolina man, David Hamner, was sound asleep when Hurricane Helene barreled through the state. He awoke to immense pain, terror, and feeling like a weight was crushing him.
A tree landed through the house and pinned the South Carolina man to his bed for two hours. Writing in People, Hamner opened up about his terrifying ordeal.
He said, "I was sound asleep. I heard the crash and felt all the debris and the weight of the tree. When I woke up, it was already over me. I felt pain immediately and it wasn't too long before my legs and my arm went numb, but that didn't stop the pain. The whole left side of my body felt like it was on fire."
The debris completely covered him, and he couldn't move. He wrote, "I was covered with debris from basically head to toe, literally couldn't move a muscle. And so the first few seconds I was like, 'This is the worst dream ever.' Then as my wits are coming back to me, I just started yelling, 'Get it off me! I can't breathe!'"
South Carolina Man Survives
First responders came to him, but they were unable to get to him. He would spend the next two hours in a very cramped position. He wrote, "First responders were trying to get me to tell them how I was laying (on my side, making a 90-degree angle with my leg and knee over my hip) and where I was facing, but they could barely hear me because the only opening in the wall behind me was about a softball size hole. I literally was picturing my mouth going straight to that hole as far as getting fresh air."
The South Carolina man continued, "But although the position I was in was painful, I do think being on my side helped me keep breathing for as long as I did. If I had been on my back, I don't think I would've been able to breathe for very long."
Finally, they were able to punch through the wall and get Hamner an oxygen mask. Still, the South Carolina man struggled to breathe. He said, "During that second hour, there were five or six times that I thought I was going to die. The breathing itself was so hard, and then the pain was so intense that it kind of took my concentration off of breathing."
Finally, they were able to free him after an exhausting amount of time. The doctor was surprised that Hamner survived.
