Grandparents Found Hugging Each Other after Fallen Tree Kills Both

This photo provided by Laurel Lindsay shows Marcia and Jerry Savage, who were killed by a tree that fell and crushed their bedroom during Hurricane Helene. (Laurel Lindsay/Second Baptist Church of Beech Island, S.C.) - The AP
This photo provided by Laurel Lindsay shows Marcia and Jerry Savage, who were killed by a tree that fell and crushed their bedroom during Hurricane Helene. (Laurel Lindsay/Second Baptist Church of Beech Island, S.C.) - The AP
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Grandparents Found Hugging Each Other after Fallen Tree Kills Both

This photo provided by Laurel Lindsay shows Marcia and Jerry Savage, who were killed by a tree that fell and crushed their bedroom during Hurricane Helene. (Laurel Lindsay/Second Baptist Church of Beech Island, S.C.) - The AP
This photo provided by Laurel Lindsay shows Marcia and Jerry Savage, who were killed by a tree that fell and crushed their bedroom during Hurricane Helene. (Laurel Lindsay/Second Baptist Church of Beech Island, S.C.) - The AP

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 lying 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."

John Savage said his grandparents were found hugging one another in the bed, adding that the family thinks it was God´s plan to take them together, rather than one suffer without the other, The AP reported.

"When they pulled them out of there, my grandpa apparently heard the tree snap beforehand and rolled over to try and protect my grandmother," he said.

They are among the more than 150 people confirmed dead in one of the deadliest storms in US history. Dozens of them died just like the Savages, victims of trees that fell on homes or cars. The dead include two South Carolina firefighters killed when a tree fell on their truck.

The storm battered communities across multiple states, flooding homes, causing mudslides and wiping out cell service.

Jerry Savage did all sorts of handy work, but he worked mostly as an electrician and a carpenter. He went "in and out of retirement because he got bored," John Savage said. "He'd get that spirit back in him to go back out and work."

Tammy Estep, 54, called her father a "doer" and the hardest worker she knew.

Marcia Savage was a retired bank teller. She was very active at their church and loved being there as often as she could, said granddaughter Katherine Savage, 27. She had a beautiful voice and was always singing, especially gospel. Estep said her mother loved cooking for her family, making an awesome turkey for Thanksgiving and known for her banana pudding.

Condolences posted on social media remembered the couple as generous, kind and humble.

John and Katherine spent many years of their childhood living in a trailer behind their grandparents' house, and John and his father had been staying with his grandparents for the last few years. Even with some of the recent storms to hit their community, trees fell further up in the yard and "we had not had anything like that happen" before, he said.

Over decades, the house would fill with family for Thanksgiving and Christmas, plus Easter egg hunts in the large yard.

A GoFundMe organized for their funeral expenses says they were survived by their son and daughter, along with four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Katherine Savage said her grandparents, especially Marcia, always offered to help her with her own three sons and would see the boys almost every day.

"I haven´t even told my boys yet because we don´t know how," she said.

The two were teenage sweethearts and married for over 50 years. Estep said their love was "immediate, and it was everlasting."

"They loved each other to their dying day," John Savage said.



Warm Clothing, Hot Pot and Even Ice Cream Bars Feature at China’s Ice Capital

Visitors tour by the ice structures during the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
Visitors tour by the ice structures during the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
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Warm Clothing, Hot Pot and Even Ice Cream Bars Feature at China’s Ice Capital

Visitors tour by the ice structures during the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)
Visitors tour by the ice structures during the Harbin Ice and Snow World in Harbin, China's Heilongjiang province on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP)

Faced with temperatures dipping to -30 Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit), visitors to China's wintertime resort city of Harbin often make a beeline for stalls selling padded clothing to augment their wardrobes.

Oddly perhaps for some, frozen ice cream bars are also considered a key part of the visit.

Each winter, the industrial city in China's northeast turns into a magnet for those from China's balmier regions wanting to experience the extreme cold and take in the sculptures built from ice blocks carved from the Songhua River, which freezes from late October to late March.

“I searched for tips on the internet and am now wearing knitted wool pants and the thickest sweater possible,” said Jin Yiting, who was visiting with her parents from the financial hub of Shanghai, where a light jacket is usually sufficient winter garb.

Jin Yanlong runs a stall selling winter hats, gloves and boots in the park. He said that most of his customers are tourists from southern China who underestimate the frigid weather in Harbin.

“Some of the tourists wear ‘too thin.’ They come here immediately from the airport. They would find us to buy warm trousers padded with cotton,” Jin said.

Despite the freezing weather, some curious tourists are brave enough to taste the cold itself. Zhuang Chang and his friend enjoyed their Madie’er ice cream bars while strolling on a commercial street whose architecture reflects the Russian influence on the city. The brand was established in 1900s by a Russian company and has steadily grown in popularity among tourists.

“It’s cold, but my heart is warm,” Zhuang said. He also compared the humid cold months of his hometown in Zhejiang province, where “people would be frozen to the core when being hit by wind.”

“But here only my hands and face feel cold,” Zhuang said.

For those seeking a warmer alternative, there are hot drinks and steaming hot pot, a kind of stew mixing meat, vegetables, tofu and other favorites.

Restaurant owner Chi Xuewen claims to own the world's largest hot pot, where 18 individual pots featuring a variety of flavors circle the giant bowl.

“Eating anything in a hot pot makes people warm,” Chi said.

Li Long’s restaurant uses wood both to cook the food and warm the air in the ice block structure.

“The pot also radiates heat,” Li said. “Once the pot cover is lifted, customers see the hot food. In one word, it just feels hot.”

Prolonged cold has left local residents with few options for fresh vegetables, so frozen food has become an alternative. Frozen tofu left outside overnight becomes porous and is particularly good at soaking up soup and flavor, local resident Liu Xiaohui said.