This is the first of two episodes from NPR's The Sunday Story from Up First . You can listen to both episodes here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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When Shalana Jordan finally arrived at her parents' trailer home in Swannanoa, N.C., alongside the river, she paused and let out a long sigh. The building was ripped open on one end, all the furniture was smashed up against the other end and a black pickup truck was wedged against one of the walls.

She climbed in through the open wall and saw a line of mud that made clear the home had been underwater.

Jordan had been in touch with her parents, Nola and Robert Ramsuer, as Hurricane Helene swept through the region last September. But then they went silent.

"She stopped texting at 7:30 Friday morning," Jordan said of

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