Back in 2022, Anastasiia Novitnia-Segen, her husband Dmytro Segen, their son Yevhenii Segen, and Anastasiia’s mother, Tetyana Novitnia fled the Ukraine. They had been living in the Kherson region of the Ukraine, which was the first area that was taken over by Russian forces.

Risking their lives, the family worked their way through Russia to the Latvia border, where they made it safely across the border. Then they traveled to Lithuania and Poland before ultimately escaping to the United States.

The family was reunited with their extended family who lived in Burnsville, North Carolina, and welcomed them with open arms. Everything seemed to be going well for the past two years.

Then hurricane Helene hit North Carolina, and Anastasiia, Dmytro, Yevhenii and Tetyana have been missing ever since. Their family assumes at this point that they died as a result of the flooding from the hurricane.

Anna Wiebe is Anastasiia’s sister. Anna and her husband Ryan Wiebe, lived near Anastasiia and her family, and when they hurricane hit, they tried to rescue their relatives. 

Ryan told PEOPLE that when they got to Anastasiia’s house, “It was like staring at an ocean.” He added, “One second, there’s a house with people in it, and then you go look at it and it’s not there.”

On October 14th, their worst fears were confirmed when the bodies of Anastasiia and Dmytro were recovered. They assume that Yevhenii and Tetyana died as well.

Ricky Wiebe, who is Ryan’s brother, started a GoFundMe to support the family during this tragedy. He wrote, “I was unable to speak with my brother Ryan until today, October 12, 2024, as he has been without cell service and electricity for over two weeks. During our conversation, he was at the funeral home in Burnsville, having to identify two of the four family members who have been missing since the hurricane. They were found more than nine miles from where their house used to be, while two family members are still missing. It seems that mother and daughter were found together, holding each other. Father and son are still missing.”

Ricky explained how Ryan and his family had to flee so quickly that Ryan ran away without even wearing shoes. He wrote, “Ryan, his wife, and their two boys had to flee their home and scramble up the hill to higher ground to survive. The water came up so fast they couldn’t grab anything; Ryan didn’t even have shoes on. They fled their home, running up the hill in the rain and hurricane winds to survive. Can you imagine? What he experienced has yet to be processed, and I doubt he ever will, as the amount of water and power was something out of a nightmare.”