A rumor circulating online following Hurricane Helene's devastating landfall in the U.S. South in late September 2024 tells the tragic story of a North Carolina lineman finding a man buried in mud. According to social media posts, the man told the lineman he didn't want to live anymore, and that he knew his wife and children were dead because had they stopped scratching his leg three days before. The posts contained no identifying information, nor did they mention a location or date when the supposed incident took place. At least one version of the story said the lineman worked for the power company Duke Energy.
One of the most commonly shared versions of the rumor read as follows:
A lineman in North Carolina said they found a man buried up to his shoulders and as they tried to dig him out he said "Dont, please let me go, I dont wanna live anymore." They asked him why he didnt want to live & he said "bcuz my wife & children are gone." They told him many ppl are still being found & his family could be safe and he replied "i know they didnt make it bcuz theyre under me & they stopped scratching my leg 3 days ago." But we send Lebanon more money.
We received reader mail asking about the rumor. One such email read:
I live near the areas of TN and NC affected by the hurricane. This story keeps popping up on my Facebook newsfeed, and everyone seems to believe it. However, I think it sounds completely made up and a little ridiculous. It's also extremely disrespectful if someone is making up things of this nature considering hundreds have actually died horrible deaths and hundreds more are still missing. I would love to be able to share if it is false with people who have unfortunately believed it.
As of this writing, we have yet to uncover any evidence confirming this rumor as true. Our research remains in progress.
For further reading, we previously reported about the true story of a photographer who captured the moment of a dramatic mudslide rescue involving six people in the town of Black Mountain, North Carolina. We also published the facts about how users shared unfounded and false rumors about recovery efforts in the town of Chimney Rock.
Contacting State and Local Officials
By email, a spokesperson for North Carolina Emergency Management (NCEM) told Snopes, "We are aware of this rumor circulating online. Duke Energy has confirmed this is a rumor." Duke Energy spokesperson Meghan Miles responded to us by email, saying, "I would encourage you to reach out to local authorities about your request."
Dominion Energy senior communications specialist Cherise Newsome told us, "We don't have any reports of this incident." She added that their service area includes the northeastern portion of North Carolina; Helene specifically devastated the western part of the state.
Rutherford County Emergency Management (RCEM) spokesperson Kerry Giles and North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) spokesperson Sam Watson both said they were unfamiliar with the story, as did officials with both Burke County and Caldwell County. Watauga County emergency management coordinator Mike Snider responded to our message, "This did not happen in Watauga County. I had not seen that rumor."
Lillian Govus, a communications and public engagement director for Buncombe County — a county identifying at least 42 known dead persons resulting from Helene — also said she could not substantiate the rumor.
Stephanie Brackett, a public information officer for Henderson County, provided a statement, reading, "This post appears to be circulating widely on social media in areas impacted by the hurricane. However, there is currently no evidence to substantiate this rumor, and it seems to be unverified information." She also recommended we contact power companies, which we did.
We contacted officials in more than 20 counties to ask about the rumor and will update this article if we receive more details.
Posts That Promoted the Rumor
In one prominent example of a user sharing the rumor, on either Oct. 15 or 16, @livezeystephanie posted a photo displaying the text on TikTok (archived). That post received over 3.5 million views and 120,000 shares. We sent a private message to the user but have not yet received a response. (We traced the image under the text to a Sept. 27 post (archived) on X from the North Carolina Department of Transportation displaying the caption, "I-40, looking down at U.S. 74.")
A user commented under @livezeystephanie's post, "This does not sound remotely truthful." Then, @livezeystephanie replied, "1000s are missing, entire families gone & you can't believe this?? you don't want to believe it." (For clarification, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced on Oct. 15 that 81 people remained missing in the western part of the state.)
In another popular post, a verified Facebook user with more than 196,000 followers uploaded a video originally created by TikTok user @bionic_mama88, who recounted the story of the North Carolina lineman, saying she read it elsewhere. The video received over 318,000 views on Facebook. As of Oct. 17, the video did not appear on @bionic_mama88's TikTok page, and it appeared the user either deleted the clip or changed its privacy settings. We sent a private message to @bionic_mama88 but did not receive a response.
Numerous other users also shared the same story, including one Facebook commenter who posted an alternative version of the story specifically mentioning Duke Energy (archived).
That account of the story read:
That has also been confirmed by another LEO to a close friend of ours....
Also A girl I work with-her husbands works for Duke power and they are up there. She said they walked up on a man buried up to his neck in mud. He was still alive but barely breathing. They started to dig him out and he was crying and telling them to stop and that he wanted to die. They asked him why and he said "my wife and son are dead". They asked him how he knew that because so many people are still just missing and he said this—- " I know they are dead because they are under me and 3 days ago they stopped scratching my leg.....
Helene's Rising Death Toll
On Oct. 16, the Asheville-based WLOS-TV reported that the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced 95 verified storm-related deaths in the state from Helene.
Earlier in the month, ABC News reported over 230 known deaths from the storm across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.