The remains of the final missing Tennessee victim from Hurricane Helene were found two years after the storm devastated Appalachian mountain towns with floods that wiped away whole communities.
Nancy Tucker, 76, disappeared along with her husband, Jimmy Tucker, when flooding from the Nolichucky River took their home in rural Washington County in the northeastern corner of Tennessee on Sept. 27, 2024. His body was recovered within a couple of days, but hers had been missing until Saturday, said Susan Saylor, spokesperson for the Washington County Sheriff’s Department. Their son lived in the home as well but was at work when the flood hit, Saylor said.
“The promise to bring Nancy home is now reality, and now we work on healing and celebrating and finally being able to bring her home and properly lay her to rest with her husband, Jim,” family spokesperson Risa Buck wrote in a statement provided to The Associated Press by James Matthews of the Washington County-Johnson City Emergency Medical Service.
Helene killed more than 250 people and caused nearly $80 billion in damage from Florida to the Carolinas. In the mountains on the North Carolina-Tennessee border, rains of up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) turned usually gentle streams into torrents that moved trees, boulders, homes and vehicles, and shattered century-old flood records. Many of those killed were swept away in the flooding. In North Carolina, the body of Alena Ayers has never been recovered. Her case prompted the North Carolina legislature last year to establish Alena's Law, making it easier to declare a person dead if they disappear during a natural disaster.
In Tennessee, first responders over the past two years had narrowed down the search area for Nancy Tucker to a portion of the Cherokee National Forest called Jackson Island. However, they faced both physical and bureaucratic hurdles. Matthews said that since February, search crews had logged over 400 miles (644 kilometers) walking through the area but could not search through the debris piles. Some reached 40 feet (12 meters) high in places and, in addition to trees and rocks, were filled with things like cars and large propane tanks.
Because the area was federal land and thought to contain Native American burial sites, local responders were not allowed to bring in the heavy equipment needed for debris removal, Saylor said. They had to wait for action from the federal government, which only awarded a contract for the removal work this summer.
“On Saturday, I got the call that I've been waiting for two years — just four days after the operation began,” Matthews said. Nancy Tucker's remains were discovered on Saturday, but removal of the remains continued into Sunday evening. Matthews was among the group that was at the site on Sunday.
“The moment we found a clear indication that this was Mrs. Tucker, everyone on the scene — we stopped. We cried. All of us cried. And we prayed,” he said.
The final, positive identification was made by a medical examiner on Monday afternoon.
An obituary for Jimmy Tucker from 2024 said that he and Nancy met while they were both serving in the U.S. Army and were married for 44 years.
When asked why first responders never gave up the search, Saylor noted that Washington County Sheriff Keith Sexton had vowed to recover every missing person after the storm.
“Why would you not want to bring what you could bring to the family, who had already lost a father?” Saylor asked. “There was never a question of stopping.”
FILE - An aerial view of flood damage left in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene is seen Sept. 28, 2024, in Greene County, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Mike Johnson is closing up the House early, sending lawmakers home Wednesday to campaign for the midterm elections after what he claims is the most productive Congress in decades.
But not without a scathing rebuke from GOP Rep. Thomas Massie for all the unfinished business.
Massie’s resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the war in Iran and his bipartisan effort to force the release of more files in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation are all being left behind, blocked from votes.
“We're calling off Congress? And we’re in the majority?” Massie railed from the House floor.
“I’m trying to get justice for the Epstein survivors,” he said. “I'm trying to stop a war.”
Massie, the renegade Republican from Kentucky, seized control of the chamber for a blistering hourlong speech criticizing Johnson, the Republican majority and the work he said the speaker is refusing to conduct to lower prices for Americans and hold the Trump administration accountable.
“Why would we be canceling days when the country is burning?” Massie said. “We should stay here for every day that's on the calendar and we should debate.”
Johnson insisted “the House has done its job."
The Republican speaker tallied the hundreds of bills passed by the House this session and, as lawmakers bolted for the exits, said they are on a 48-hour notice to return to Washington if needed.
“We're walking out here with our heads high,” he said.
Earlier in the day, he dismissed Massie’s effort to impeach Hegseth as “a stunt.”
“Secretary Hegseth has done an extraordinary job at the Department of War,” Johnson said.
The afternoon showdown provided a colorful capstone to what has been a tumultuous two-year session of House Republicans in control by a bare majority, with Johnson routinely struggling to keep the place running.
Despite the enormous tools of the gavel — the speaker holds one of the most powerful positions in Washington, second in the line of succession to the president — Johnson has often been thwarted by his own conference.
The speaker has repeatedly and abruptly canceled House voting days to send lawmakers home rather than manage the disruptions from his own rebellious flank — particularly those legislative efforts that threatened to rebuke President Donald Trump.
By one tally, the House has cut 28 days this year, while adding four others, for a net loss of 24 days — about one-fourth of the total scheduled.
Still, Johnson has hauled major legislation to the finish line, most notably the “Big Beautiful Bill,” a package of tax breaks and social service cuts that Trump signed into law last summer.
And on Wednesday the House powered through a full agenda, passing bills large and small — including a sweeping bill to impose sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, and another to name the American mastodon the national fossil mammal and the Tyrannosaurus Rex the national fossil dinosaur.
“This has literally been the most productive and successful and aggressive Congress” in decades, he said earlier this month, calling it the top five of all time. “We’re confident American voters are going to remember that when they head to vote this fall.”
Voters will be assessing the situation in November as they decide whether to keep Trump’s party in power, while Democrats work to dislodge Republicans from majority control of both the House and the Senate.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries assailed the “do-nothing” Republican majority and promised Democrats will perform better.
“Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans promised to bring down grocery prices on Day One. They promised to stop endless wars in the Middle East,” Jeffries said from the steps of the Capitol, flanked by Democratic lawmakers.
“But Republicans have done nothing to make life more affordable for the American people,” he said.
He said Democrats’ message is a simple one: “We hear you. We see you … And we are committed to making life better for you.”
The confrontation also provided a platform for Massie, the libertarian-leaning go-his-own-way congressman who orchestrated the initial release of the Epstein files and helped lead efforts to halt the conflict in Iran through a war powers resolution.
Massie lost his own primary bid for reelection after Trump mounted a costly campaign to kick him out of Congress.
But the congressman has only appeared emboldened in his final days in office.
Massie spent much of his floor speech assailing Johnson's leadership and decrying what he calls the “uniparty,” which he characterizes as moving in lockstep with big-money special interests at home and abroad.
He also devoted substantial time to criticizing Hegseth and the “stupid war” he said the U.S. should not be involved with in Iran. Deriding Hegseth's leadership, he mocked the secretary for trying to rename the Defense Department as the Department of War without consulting Congress.
“Hell, you can't even rename a post office without us,” he said.
Hegseth's role in sending the U.S. into the Iran wars without approval of Congress and directing the U.S.'s military strikes of alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean are among the actions Massie characterized as high crimes and misdemeanors in the articles of impeachment against the Defense secretary.
Massie said he knew when he landed in Washington that he would stand apart.
“I'm not playing this game,” he said. “I am going to tell people what is going on up here.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a ceremony to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
