Hurricane Helene brought tragedy to Thomson, Georgia, 120 miles east of Atlanta, on Monday, September 30. The storm claimed many lives, including those of Kobe Williams and her newborn twin sons, Khyzier and Khazmir.
Williams, a single mother, had informed her family she wasn’t sure it would be safe to evacuate with her newborn nursing infants. On the day of the storm, 27-year-old Williams called her father, Obie Williams, as fierce winds and rain pounded their trailer home. With the sound of crying babies and branches hitting the windows in the background, she promised to shelter in the bathroom until the storm passed. Minutes later, she stopped responding to calls.
“Nobody was taking the storm seriously,” said Williams’ mother, Mary Jones, who was in the house when her daughter and grandbabies were killed. “Then it started, and the wind was so loud. When the lights went off, Kobe got really scared. She was worried about the babies.”
When Jones was awakened by the sounds of the storm, she went to check on her family and saw that a huge tree had crashed through the roof. “I started screaming, ‘Kobe! Answer me! Please answer me!’ It was so dark, and I couldn’t see anything except branches.”
At the sound of the grandmother’s cries, neighbors came running, but even with flashlights, they couldn’t find Williams and her twins. When police arrived, they found Khyzier and Khazmir with their mother. Jones said, “I asked, are they alive? And one officer said, ‘It’s bad, don’t go in there,’ and I just lost it. I lost it.”
Williams was reportedly holding the babies in her arms, trying to protect them, when the tree fell on her.
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Khyzier and Khazmir, born on August 20, are reportedly the youngest known victims of Hurricane Helene, which took the lives of nearly 230 people (at most recent count) across North and South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia — with many more still missing.
“I’d seen pictures when they were born and pictures every day since, but I hadn’t made it out there yet to meet them,” Obie Williams shared with the AP, deeply mourning his daughter and grandsons. “Now I’ll never get to meet my grandsons. It’s devastating.”
They family is awaiting the release of Kobe and her twins’ bodies to arrange a funeral.
“She was so excited to be a mother of those beautiful twin boys,” said family member Chiquita Jones-Hampton. “She was doing such a good job and was so proud to be their mom.” Jones-Hampton, who considered Williams a sister, said the family is in shock and heartbroken.
