Couple reunited after volunteer rescue pilot threatened with arrest in North Carolina

LAKE LURE, N.C. (WJZY) — For a split second, it sounded like thunder. Mike and Susan Coffey were sitting in silence, trying to figure out what was happening outside their Lake Lure home as the winds and rain from Hurricane Helene hammered the North Carolina mountains.

The Coffeys and their cat were the only two living beings inside their mountainside home that sits along the Broad River.

In the next split-second, they both knew the sounds below them weren't coming from the heavens. They didn't know it then, but they were hearing millions of gallons of flood waters, raining down hell along the river's path through Lake Lure.

“We started to hear a lot of noise," Susan said, recounting the moment to Nexstar's WJZY. "Rumbling. Rumbling – wasn't thunder. What's this weird rumbling?"

"Trees, falling rocks… so it got a little bit frightening at that point," Mike said. “We said we'd better get to higher ground, just in case. So, we grabbed the cat, a couple bottles of water, a bag of chips; like we were really thinking. And got in our cars and drove up the driveway, which was probably 30 feet higher and parked in the cul-de-sac and parked our cars against the mountainside."

From some 80 feet above the river, the Coffeys watched the earth that held their mountainside home disappear as everything they had washed away with the raging flood waters below.

"We watched our house go," Mike told WJZY's Chief Investigator Jody Barr in an interview on Oct. 3. "The cliff just dropped that whole side of the road, the cliff just dropped off. All of the trees and dirt and everything else just started collapsing. We saw the house next to us where its back deck went over and it was hanging for a while. About 2 hours later, that house went."

"Another house down the street from us, so we just kind of watched that whole area slide down and into the river."

The Coffeys thought they — and the strip of asphalt left beneath their cars — might go next. They could see the flood waters chipping away at the mountainside. Within a few yards of eroding the rest of the road and the cul-de-sac out from under them, it all just stopped.

The couple spent Thursday night in their car. There was no need to ask how much they slept that night since one could imagine it likely wasn't much.

Once the storm passed, the Friday morning sun revealed a new world. Very little of the life they built on that mountainside was there. The couple knew they were in trouble.

The food and water they had inside the house were somewhere downriver.

“Luckily, the house next door was under construction so they had left some equipment and there was a pickup truck that was parked there. I saw a cooler in the back in the cab and so I opened it up, and there was water and a thing of cranberry juice and some Mountain Dew that he wouldn’t drink," Susan Coffey joked as she turned to her husband during Thursday's video call. "There was some beer like, well, that would be dehydrating. I don't want that, but if we're desperate, well, we'll take it. So, it just gave us a lifeline for another day that we knew we had some water to have so that was just such a blessing. It was a relief to find that."

But it didn't last.

"Friday night, we had no water," Susan said. "We had potato chips, which were also dehydrating and that was a great pick. But by the next morning, we were starting to get worried again about what we would have to be able to drink."

Friday night was another night spent in their car. Luckily, Susan said, they had filled their car with gas and could charge their phones. The problem was that cell service in the storm's path was impossible to reach.

"We did find some cell service, and called a friend to let them know so they could call emergency services and let them know our location," Susan recalled. "We started to see helicopters go over. So, every time we heard a copter, we'd just run out and start waving. There was a big pile of rocks at the house next door. So, we did a big S.O.S. sign in the cul-de-sac with the rocks and just [tried] at the moment to stay positive and not worry too much."

The pair had a bit of hope on Saturday when they said two Lake Lure Fire Department personnel hiked in from across the mountain to tell the Coffeys they'd be rescued by a helicopter. A chopper — the couple said it appeared to be the National Guard — came back later that day, but couldn't get to them.

"It was too big, and it just had no place, safe place to land. So, then they said they'd have to airlift us out and we just didn't know when that would be,” Susan said.

"So they gave us some hope there, right? So we thought we were going to get out Saturday and then, you know, just kept watching helicopters fly overhead a lot," Mike told WJZY.

"Every time we heard a 'copter, we would run out there: 'Is this it? Is this it?' No, go back to the car," Susan said. "So, yeah, we were ... we were alert, just always – the adrenaline is just so high, you're just so on alert. We were told you don't miss it, you don't want to miss it. But then when it started to get dark, and we realized they were not going to do helicopter rescues in the dark. So, we had another night there."

Emergency crew looked "very, very annoyed"

"I don't think we ever ran out of hope. We had each other, and that was the main thing,” Mike Coffey said when asked if they started to believe help wouldn't come by the third day after multiple helicopters had flown over without stopping.

"Sometimes you get a little scared and then you just stay in the moment and not worry too much. And we knew that people knew where we were, so worst case, we were going to swim ourselves, try and cross the river ourselves," Susan said. "We knew we could survive so long without food or water, we'll be okay. Like I said, we had the Mountain Dew as backup," she joked.

Not long after the sun rose Sunday morning, they heard the sweet sound of chopper blades ripping through the air.

"And then we saw this small black helicopter fly and we were waving at it and it stopped," Susan said, "It circled over us. And so, I thought, oh, maybe the National Guard sent a smaller helicopter to get us because they knew their big ones were just weren't good for that area.”

But, it wasn't a government worker coming to their aid, it was Jordan Seidhom, the owner of a scrap steel recycling business in Pageland, South Carolina. He's also a pilot, former head of the Chesterfield County drug unit, reserve law enforcement officer, and volunteer firefighter — among other jobs.

He decided the day after the storm to use his own helicopter on his own dime to answer the cries for help he read on social media within hours of the storm passing.

Seidhom and his 1,400 flight hours decided to load his son, a junior in high school and a volunteer fireman in Pageland, into their chopper to fly into the disaster zone to deliver food and water. Along the way on Saturday, they happened to pluck four people off a mountainside.

Seidhom, a veteran pilot, said there were no flight restrictions anywhere near Lake Lure when he decided to fly there on Saturday and Sunday. The Federal Aviation Administration issues flight restrictions and post those to digital flight-mapping software accessible to pilots all across the country.

Then on Sunday, the Seidhoms spotted Susan Coffey frantically waving for help.

"So when this helicopter actually landed just at the very end of the driveway where it had fallen off, they're able to land it at the very end of the driveway, a little bit on the road, we were just amazed," Susan said, initially thinking it would be another failed mission to save them.

Seidhom landed his helicopter near the edge of the cliff and hopped out to speak with the Coffeys. Because he didn't want to place too much weight on the unstable ground, Seidhom said he told the Coffeys he'd take them one by one to a nearby command post he spotted about three minutes away.

Seidhom loaded Susan into the helicopter and asked his son to stay with Mike as he delivered the couple to safety. Seidhom lifted off and flew Mrs. Coffey to the Lake Lure Fire Department post just downriver.

"He found a safe place to land, on a street that was in front of a bunch of some firemen, policemen, and some National Guardsmen. So we land, and I get out of the helicopter, and I go towards them," Susan said, "And they're just standing there looking very mad and very annoyed. And said, 'Who are you?" And I didn't realize [Seidhom] had just taken it upon himself, followed his heart to come help rescue people. And communication is so down, it's hard to know who to let know that he has this free airspace, that he can go do this.”

Seidhom was explaining who he was to the first responders, and said he was first greeted by two leaders of a fire department out of Michigan. Those men, Seidhom said, were welcoming and gave him radio frequencies to communicate with them and began setting up a landing zone so he could continue delivering people to the post.

But, Seidhom told WJZY that Lake Lure Fire and Emergency Management Asst. Chief Chris Melton jumped into the mix, ordering him out of the area and threatened to have him arrested if he didn't go.

Susan Coffey witnessed some of the exchange: "[Seidhom] was telling them who he was and what he was doing, and they just were not happy. They weren't happy about it. And [Melton] said, this is our mission, this is our operation, we can't just have you flying in and out. Jordan was telling them, 'Well, I can't just leave her husband, I don't want to separate a family. So, if you just let me go back and get her husband and then I'll bring him here, then I'll take my son. Then we'll go,'" she recalled.

“I thought, that's reasonable, it saves the National Guard a trip," Susan said. "You know, one less person they have to save."

She didn't hear and didn't know that Melton had threatened Seidhom with arrest if he didn't leave.

“I'm going back and get my copilot," Seidhom recalled telling Melton, "He said, 'If you turn around and go back up the mountain, you're going to be arrested.' I said, 'Well, sir, I'm going to get my copilot. I don't know what to tell you.' And he said, 'I'm letting you know,'" Seidhom said.

"At that point, he waved for two law enforcement officers to come over and told me that, again, if I go back up the mountain, I will be arrested," Seidhom said, "There was a conversation before I left again, just trying to de-escalate the situation and speak with him and say, 'Hey, you know, I'm right here. I've already brought one person down and I'm willing to help. Can I please go back and get this other victim?' And his response was just, 'you need to leave the area.'"

"And he just would not allow me to do it," Seidhom recalled. "As I was actually leaving to go back to get my son, the original chief or captain (Michigan crew) that I spoke to his crew and himself, they came back over and said, 'Hey, man, we can't tell you to go get the victim. We can't even ask you to go get the victim, but we can tell you if you come back with the victim, we'll have you a designated landing spot and we'll make sure they don't come over here.'"

Believing Melton was intent on having him hauled off to jail, Seidhom decided to get his son out of there and regroup another day.

When Seidhom lifted off from the command post, he went back to the mountainside to get his son and informed Mr. Coffey he would not be able to save him.

"When I got to the door, he said, 'I am so sorry, but I'm told if I bring you back that I'm going to be arrested and I can't take you back with me. And in fact, I was told I couldn't come get my co-pilot, my son, and I just told him I'm not going to leave my son here,'" Mike Coffey recalled of the conversation with the pilot from Pageland. "He said, 'I am so sorry. I don't know what to tell you, but I need to take my son and we're going to leave."

"'They've told me they're aware of where you are and you will be rescued,' and he took off," Coffey recounted.

"He takes off, I had no idea where my wife was. I couldn't comprehend what was going on. Like, how did this make sense?" Mr. Coffey told WJZY. "And when, if ever, I was going to be reunited with her, how long it would take for some other rescue crew to get back to me. So that was the most stressful part of the whole experience. I can watch my house go. I can watch our neighbors’ houses go.

"We were together, right? And we knew each other was safe. And when he left, that, that thought right just kind of disappeared, like okay, I don't know what's going to happen from here."

Mike decided to act. He took their cat carrier and his computer bag down the side of the cliff and spotted a rescue crew across the river.

"I was waving them down and I was able to get down the banks to our side of the river where I could at least yell and communicate across the river, saying, 'Do you have my wife? Do you know where my wife is?' And they were giving me the thumbs up,” Mike said.

Instead of the three-minute chopper ride to safety, Mike Coffey was now faced with having to cross the raging river, full of storm debris, mud, and who knows what else.

It was a rescue effort that would take the next hour of his life.

"This was a crew out of Michigan, and they were great. There were, I think, three of them and a guy from Chimney Rock who swam, one of them swam across the river with a rope. And the very first thing he said to me was, 'Are you okay? Are you Mike Coffey? We've got your wife, so she's safe.'”

Coffey said one of the rescuers took his cat carrier and another got his computer bag and through a series of ropes, the group crossed the river.

"Those guys also, they came down from Michigan. They don't know us from anybody. They were willing to put their lives on the line. They're also heroes in that story,” Coffey said. Once across, Coffey was loaded into a shuttle bus and taken to a nearby shelter.

It would take a few hours before the Coffeys found one another again.

Susan Coffey was still waiting at the command post, watching shuttle buses pass. One eventually stopped.

"When the bus came back to get me and then I see the doors open and Mike's head sticks out, oh, my God. I was so relieved that he was picked up and that we were back together," Susan said, "It's one of those things; we met in the parking lot. We're hugging and crying, just so relieved to have found each other again.”

Seidhom still regrets not finishing the job on that mountainside that day.

“I'm sorry, if I had to do it over again, I would have stopped and I would have rescued as many people until they decided they were going to arrest me," Seidhom told WJZY the day after the threat.

"He got my wife and at his own cost, at a risk to himself," Mike Coffey told WJZY. "He was the one person who actually stopped to help just because he could. I mean, he got in his helicopter and flew up there just because he knew he could make a difference to someone, and he did. He’s a hero.”

"I'm sure everyone's stressed in that scenario, but he was following his heart and doing the right thing," Mike said. "And maybe there were rules that somebody would like to impose order on the chaos, but the bottom line is getting those people out of there. And even if I had never been rescued, knowing that she was safe because he did what he did would have been enough. So, thank you, Jordan. Thank you."

Melton won't speak with WJZY, but makes appearance

WJZY spent nearly four days waiting for Assistant Fire Chief Melton to respond to multiple attempts to request an interview with him, hoping to hear his side and his reasons for ordering Seidhom out of Lake Lure — and whether he would have carried out his threat to have the volunteer pilot arrested in the middle of an active rescue mission.

But Melton never responded, even after the town's media contact, Laura Krejci, responded to a Facebook message confirming Melton received WJZY's request to speak with him a few days earlier. Still, knowing Melton was likely actively involved in the efforts there and knowing communication lines were potentially unavailable, WJZY did not publish Melton's identity.

By Thursday, WJZY was ready to publish this follow-up report and informed the town a final request to speak with Melton before publishing had been made. Krejci responded, telling WJZY she would make Lake Lure Town Manager Olivia Stewman available for an interview.

On Thursday, just past 2:30 p.m., Stewman and Barr met via video conference for an interview. Chris Melton has still not responded to any of WJZY's messages.

Although he was not available to interview, a man who appeared to be Melton opened the door to the room where Stewman was participating in the interview. An unidentified person off camera frantically waved to the man to leave. The man's face is visible in the background of the video conference video recording.

Here's a partial transcript of the interview of the exchange between WJZY's Barr and Lake Lure's Stewman:

BARR: “What happened in that incident?”

STEWMAN: “The personal aircraft that landed was not only unauthorized but also, they provided no notification that they were coming. And that did pose a potential risk to ongoing operations with search and rescue. And then, you know, also just wasn't safe for them to be there as regular citizens, especially since we didn't know who they were or what they were doing there. We had multiple national, local and state resources. That includes the National Guard, NCHART (North Carolina Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team), SCHART, we had the Coast Guard, state troopers, and then there may have been more, as well. So, they were completing their operations. And you know, in order to do that there, they were not authorizing private aircraft at that time. Any aircraft that would have – that should have gone through there should have gone through incident command as well. I just wanted to note that.”

BARR: "The FAA website shows that there was no flight restriction in the area at that time. Do you agree with that?”

STEWMAN: “I'm not sure of that. I'm sorry. But it was FAA’s ultimate call to not allow that – not to allow private aircraft into that area.”

BARR: “In the days after the storm, through that Sunday morning, there was no restricted airspace in Lake Lure. The FAA did impose a temporary flight restriction after this encounter between Mr. Seidhom and the assistant fire chief, Melton. You all still contend today that no one should have been in that area trying to save these people who had been stranded for two days, headed into day two, next to day three?”

NOTE: Within 30 minutes of Jordan Seidhom, the FAA issued a Temporary Flight Restriction for the area near Lake Lure. The FAA confirmed in an Oct. 3, 2024, email to Barr that no TFR was issued anywhere in the NC disaster zone before.

STEWMAN: “Correct. If anything, they should have at least notified Incident Command who would have authorized them or not authorized them to be in that area.”

BARR: "Do you know whether Mr. Seidhom spoke with the people in charge at the Rutherford Airport? The airport did not have power at the time, but the airport told Mr. Seidhom if he was going to conduct volunteer search and rescue operations, those were the only aircraft they were fueling and they sold Mr. Seidhom fuel to go in and sold him fuel to come back under that condition?”

STEWMAN: “I’m unaware of that.”

BARR: “Unaware of that?”

STEWMAN: “Yep.”

BARR: “Would that not be an effort to coordinate and communicate?”

STEWMAN: "If that was coordinated, then it was not relayed to us. I will say that.”

BARR: "Was there a way to relay that to you all with the communications in the shape they were in at that time?”

STEWMAN: “Communications have been tough. I know you're aware of that. Rutherford County EM (Emergency Management) has been communicating with us as best they can through radios at that time, we were still struggling more with the service, but they were communicating with radio. So, you know, we didn't get anything over the radio that I'm aware of that indicated that.”

BARR: “If someone were to fly into an airport, communicate with the people in charge, was sold fuel under the condition that he was there to do volunteer a search and rescue, and then he proceeded to land where he saw what he believed to be a command center and talk to people in charge there, would that not yet be another attempt to coordinate and communicate with the with the rescue efforts on the ground to let them know why he's there and what he was doing?”

STEWMAN: “Again, that should have gone through the chain of command at incident command.”

BARR: “Was that published anywhere? If someone were looking for incident command, where would they have found that information?”

STEWMAN: “I’m unaware of that.”

BARR: "Do you think that your people on the ground in Lake Lure did what they should have done when they handled this flooding victim that was delivered to them in the encounter between Assistant Chief Melton and this private pilot?”

STEWMAN: “Yes, sir. They were doing what they were supposed to do at that time. And, you know, I can't speak highly enough of Mr. Melton and all of our emergency personnel that's here right now. They've been out here for days on end, putting their lives on the line to save people. And, you know, they were doing their job.”

BARR: “Less than 24 hours later, private pilots were being asked to return to that area to do what Mr. Seidhom was doing at that time. Do you see how the public may look at that and go, well, that's a little perplexing? Just before he was severely endangering rescue efforts and then, you know, less than a day later, they're being begged to come back and help?"

STEWMAN: “Well, I can only imagine that they went through the correct chain of command to be authorized to come here.”

BARR: “What was the danger posed in what Mr. Seidhom did, the specific danger that day?”

STEWMAN: “Well, it interrupted operations of the people who were there from national, state, and local resources, one. And two, downtown Chimney Rock is in disarray right now. For someone who's not trained, not adequately, adequately trained in emergency operations, you know, especially at that time, they should not have been in that location.”

BARR: “Well, just some hours later, he was back in the area and the county welcomed him in to do exactly what he did just the day before. Do you think his training was significantly improved overnight?”

STEWMAN: “I think that it's not that we're turning away help or volunteerism at all. Once again, we just need to go through the right steps to do that. So we're aware, the state is aware, the county is aware, and the Town of Lake Lure, and the Village of Chimney Rock is aware of what's going on. That was not the case initially.”

[ZOOM QUALITY BREAKS UP]

BARR: “Lake Lure’s position here is that because Mr. Seidhom did not go through whatever unpublished channel he was supposed to go through, that he should have maybe guessed the right way to do this, even though that right way to do this was nowhere to be found at that time?”

STEWMAN: “Again, we were listening to the FAA's direction, and at that time, that is what we were told, that there was no personnel or aircraft unless they went through the correct steps. And we are not aware that this individual did that.”

BARR: “Does the town understand that the way the FAA communicates with pilots is through restricting airspace and publishing that on the FAA website?”

STEWMAN: “I'm not sure, sir.”

BARR: “And there was no TFR until the encounter between your assistant fire chief and Mr. Seidhom.”

STEWMAN: “Okay.”

BARR: “The final question I have, the town of Lake Lure has no regrets about how Mr. or Mrs. Coffey were treated that day when a pilot showed up to help save their lives on the side of that mountain in Lake Lure?”

STEWMAN: “No, I want to reiterate again that our personnel, our public safety personnel, were doing what they were instructed to do at that time. They were doing their jobs, trying to save lives and they have been out there doing that since – I mean, they're doing that all the time. But, you know, out in this condition is worse than usual. And they're continuing to do that. We support them fully and we're going to continue to support them.”

STEWMAN: “We really just need some support, compassion, understanding and patience. That's really what we need from people right now, especially in this tough situation. You know, this is making it worse and, you know, we're just asking that people have some compassion and consideration.”

BARR: “Are you all welcoming those private helicopter pilots who have delivered food and water and medical supplies and are helping rescue human lives from the mountains around Lake Lure? You guys welcoming them now?”

STEWMAN: “That would need to go through the Rutherford County Emergency Management or the state Emergency Management.”

BARR: “I'm asking you as an official, the leader of Lake Lure, North Carolina, are you now welcoming those private helicopters in your community?”

STEWMAN: “Yes. If they go through the necessary channels.”

Despite rumors published to social media channels on Friday, Asst. Chief Chris Melton was not terminated by the Town of Lake Lure. In a follow-up text after the interview, Barr asked whether the rumors were true and Stewman replied that Melton is still employed with the town.