Helene’s impacts | Appalachian State student shares experience [Video]

BOONE, N.C. — Winifred Rhea-Unruh says she’s grateful.

“I just turned 21 on Tuesday. I didn’t I would be moving back home at this time of my life,” she said.

While her birthday didn’t go as planned, she also understands that she was just feet away from potentially losing her life in the midst of Helene‘s rampage through the Carolinas.

“Seeing the tree, it looked like a movie prop. It didn’t look real,” Rhea-Unruh recalled.

The Appalachian State University senior said she heard a loud noise early Friday morning as Helene ripped through the area.

“I go out to my front apartment door, and I open — it’s a tree,” she said.

Moments after the first responders arrived, Rhea-Unruh and her two roommates quickly started packing as water leaked into their unit at the Mountaineer Village …