A Young Family’s Flight for Life on Day of North Carolina Floods

The baby is with her grandparents now, and the pets are safe—but everything else is lost.

Michael and Brhianna Stapleton with "Plan B," the car that got them to safety from fast-rising floodwaters. Photo taken on Oct. 4, 2024. Richard Moore/The Epoch Times

ASHEVILLE, N.C.—The vehicle sat by itself on a dried mud plain. Its shape was definitely car-like, in a smashed-up, crumpled way.

It used to be blue, maybe, but its color was now faded and augmented by scrapes, dirt, as well as an uncountable number of twigs and grasses.