A devoted mother and her 5-week-old twins were killed when a massive tree crashed through their home during Hurricane Helene. The babies are Helene's youngest known victims.
Kobe Williams and her sons, Khyzier and Khazmir, died on Sept. 27, after a tree fell on their mobile home in rural Thomson, Georgia, Williams' mother Mary Jones tells TODAY.com.
“Nobody was taking the storm seriously,” says Jones, 56, who was in the house when her 27-year-old 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.”
Jones, who lived with Williams, says that she and her daughter stayed up through the night talking and listening to the sound of branches cracking and falling.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
At 5:15 a.m., Jones fed Khyzier so that her daughter could get a little rest.
“She couldn’t sleep because she was afraid,” Jones says.
After Khyzier finished his bottle, Jones went to lie down while Williams made phone calls to calm her nerves.
U.S. & World
Less than an hour later, Jones was awakened by what she describes as a “strange shushing” sound followed by an eerie silence. When Jones went to investigate, she saw a massive tree had crashed through the roof of Williams's bedroom and storm debris was pouring in.
“I started screaming, ‘Kobe! Answer me! Please answer me!’ It was so dark and I couldn’t see anything except branches,” Jones says.
Neighbors heard Jones's cries and came running. But even with flashlights, they couldn't find Williams and the twins.
"They said, ‘She ain’t in there,” Jones recalls. But Jones knew her daughter was inside, because she never would have left without the twins’ car seats.
“I begged them to go back in,” Jones says.
When police arrived, they confirmed that Khyzier and Khazmir had died alongside their mom.
“I asked, are they alive? And (one officer) said, ‘It’s bad, don’t go in there,” Jones says. “And I just lost it. I lost it.”
“She was holding the babies in her arms when the tree fell on her head. She was trying to protect them," Jones’s granddaughter, Markeya Jones, tells TODAY.com.
Markeya remembers how excited Williams was when she found out she was having twins. “She did not play when it came to her babies — she was a wonderful mother.”
Williams worked as a customer service representative, Markeya says, and had to stop working before the babies were born because she got so sick when she was pregnant.
When the twins were born, Markeya says, "She was real nurturing."
Another relative recently gave an interview to news media in which they claimed the tree fell on Williams “causing her to fall on top of her infant sons.”
“That isn’t true. She did not fall on top of them,” Markeya says.
Jones and Markeya also say that Williams did not speak to that relative on the night she was killed, contrary to his claims.
More than 220 people are known to have died as a result of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene since it made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26, NBC News reported.
Helene is the deadliest U.S. hurricane since Katrina hit Louisiana in 2005.
Shawn Stapleton, owner of the funeral home handling the arrangements for Williams and her babies, has set up a GoFundMe to help Jones with funeral expenses.
The McDuffie County coroner Paul Johnson confirmed that Kobe and her twins died on Sept. 27.
“Kobe was my baby,” an emotional Jones tells TODAY. “I just want her back.”
This article first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
