LITTLE SWITZERLAND, N.C. — Five people crawled more than a mile up a mountain in McDowell County to get to safety right before Helene sent their inn crumbling into the valley.
Carter Francois is the co-owner of the nearly 100-year-old Alpine Inn, located in the little mountain town known as Little Switzerland. Francois shared photos with WFMY News 2 showing the building completely shattered into the mountainside.
Francois said he saw the road next to their motel beginning to crumble and knew he had to get their guests out. He said it was like a scene out of the movie "Jurassic Park" and that he heard a "pop, pop, pop" sound as sections of the road broke into pieces.
Not long after that, the building everyone was inside fell into the mountainside. Francois and the other four people climbed over boulders, brush, and debris to get to another shelter at a higher elevation.
"We had to walk the longest 1.2 miles of our lives," the owners wrote in an online post. "Crawling over and under trees, power lines, knee-high mud, and Volkswagen-sized boulders."
WFMY News 2's Nixon Norman will have more on this incredible story of survival Wednesday evening. Take a look at the photos of the damage at the historic Alpine Inn.
