Donna Fagersten had taken refuge at a friend’s home on the top floor as Hurricane Helene tore through northern Florida, leaving a devastating trail of destruction and more than 100 casualties in the southeastern U.S.
As the storm appeared to calm, the 66-year-old teacher, just days away from her retirement, made a fateful choice to return home to rescue her cat.
When Hurricane Helene hit Florida on September 26, 2024, around 11 p.m., the Category 4 storm triggered flash floods, forcing residents to scramble for safety. One of the hardest-hit areas was Pinellas County, particularly in the Tampa Bay region, where at least 11 people lost their lives.
Among the victims was Donna Fagersten, a second-grade teacher from Ponce De Leon Elementary in Pinellas County.
According to her best friend Heather Anne Boles, Donna was set to retire the following week after dedicating 35 years to teaching. When the storm hit, Donna sought shelter with Boles and her partner, Mike Moran. As the storm surge rushed in, they retreated to the third floor of Boles’ mother’s home, across from the beach where Donna lived.
Boles recalled that as the storm seemed to settle, Donna insisted on going home to check on her cat, despite Boles’ pleas to stay. Tragically, another surge and high winds returned, battering the coastline.
A neighbor later came to their shelter, reporting that someone had been found floating in the parking garage. They quickly pulled Donna from the water and began CPR, but despite their efforts and the arrival of fire rescue by boat, they were unable to revive her.
Detectives later confirmed that Donna had drowned in her home, which had been flooded with water.
Family and friends have since remembered Donna as a “beautiful person” who was deeply committed to her students and community. In a Facebook post, Mary Gleason Lyons, a colleague and friend, described Donna as a dedicated teacher with a big heart, touching the lives of many students over her 35-year career.
Online tributes poured in, with former students and friends expressing their sadness at her passing and remembering her kindness and warmth.
While Boles and Moran are now left to clean up after the floods, which destroyed most of their belongings, the loss of their best friend is what hurts the most. “This is the worst we have ever seen,” Boles said, reflecting on the storm’s destruction compared to Hurricane Irma, where they managed to keep their home and belongings intact.
On a positive note, Donna’s cat survived, and her friends are working to find him a new home.
Hurricane Helene, which cut a destructive 800-mile path northward, left more than 2 million homes without power and claimed over 100 lives, according to USA Today.
11 Characters That Were Pregnant in Real Life, and What Their Babies Look Like Today
Participating in the filming of a series or movie is hard work since celebrities have to get into the skin of their characters to achieve an authentic interpretation. But that doesn’t mean that actors don’t have real lives behind the scenes. Sometimes, actresses decide to become mothers and already have contracts with production companies. This presents a challenge for them, because of their pregnancy, and for the filmmakers who have to decide whether to incorporate the belly into the plot or simply let the actress cover her belly.
Bright Side made a list of 11 celebrities who played during pregnancy (some of them had to hide their belly) and is revealing what these kids that made things complicated for their mothers and producers look like today.
1. Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Seinfeld
During the shooting of the third season of the popular sitcom, Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus became pregnant with her first child, Henry Hall. Baby Henry was born in July of 1992. However, the actress’s pregnancy was never really a problem for the producers of the series. The simple solution writers came up with was to put her character, Elaine, in baggy clothes and any large garments to hide her belly. Henry is currently 29 years old.
2. Claire Danes in Homeland
You probably know actress Claire Danes because of the amazing performance she delivered as the CIA agent, Carrie Mathison, in the television series, Homeland. However, what’s not often talked about is the fact that she was 8 months pregnant when she completed the filming of the second season. Her pregnancy could not be introduced in the plot due to her character, so they decided to use digital retouching to hide her belly. Her son, Cyrus, was born in December 2012, and he’s now 9 years old.
3. Ellen Pompeo in Grey’s Anatomy
During the filming of the sixth season of one of the most popular drama series ever created, Grey’s Anatomy, producers decided to hide Ellen Pompeo’s pregnancy from the cameras. This was done because, for the writers, this was not the right time for her character, Dr. Meredith, to have a baby, and they wanted to keep that for a later moment. In September 2009, Stella Luna, now 12 years old, was born.
4. Zooey Deschanel in New Girl
Zooey Deschanel was 7 months pregnant when season 5 of the hit series, New Girl,was shot. As you probably remember, the actress had to be momentarily replaced by Megan Fox since producers were only able to hide her belly for no more than a few episodes. Deschanel also had to stay off the series until she returned from postpartum rest. Zooey gave birth to her daughter, Elsie, in August 2015, and today the little girl is 5 years old.
5. Holly Marie Combs in Charmed
Holly Marie Combs, who plays Piper, one of the main characters of the series, Charmed, announced during the shooting of the sixth season that she was pregnant. The producers thought it was better to hide her pregnancy at first. However, after a while, they decided that it was better for her character to actually have a child in the story as well. Apparently, Piper’s pregnancy was planned before the actress knew she was expecting a baby, so that came in handy. Combs gave birth to her first child, Finley Arthur, in 2004, and he’s now 17 years old.
6. Amaia Salamanca in Velvet
Amaia Salamanca’s pregnancy was well-planned when she rejoined the set of Velvet, a show about the compelling Spanish story of a fashion house in Madrid in the late ’50s. Because of this, production had no choice but to make Barbara, her character, pregnant as well. At the age of 28, she gave birth to her first child, a girl named Olivia Varo, in April 2014.
7. Kerry Washington in Scandal
Kerry Washington’s pregnancy happened right in the middle of the shooting of the series, Scandal, in which she played the main character. This unforeseen event forced producers to reduce the number of episodes to hide the actress’s pregnancy that couldn’t fit the schedule of the series. Currently, her daughter, Isabelle, is 7 years old.
8. Kristen Bell in House of Lies
The star of the House of Lies TV series, Kristen Bell, was about 6 months pregnant with her first daughter when the second season of the show was about to be shot. In order to actually film some episodes, the producers had to hire a body double for the scenes in which Bell would have had to show her belly. Her first daughter, Lincoln Bell, is now 8 years old.
9. Cobie Smulders in How I Met Your Mother
Actress Cobie Smulders brought her character, Robin, to millions of small screens thanks to the sitcom, How I Met Your Mother. After fellow actress Alyson Hannigan told the show-runners that she was pregnant, Cobie Smulders discovered that she was also pregnant and told the producers who had to camouflage both of their pregnancies. To disguise Smulders’ belly, producers asked the costume designers to use garments and objects that could hide her abdomen, and they had the character remain seated for most of the scenes that she appeared in. In May 2009, the actress gave birth to her daughter, Shaelyn.
10. Madonna in Evita
Madonna, also known as the Queen of Pop, made the controversial 1996 film in which she played the wife of Argentinian dictator Juan Domingo Perón, Eva Perón. However, Madonna was pregnant with her daughter, Lourdes Leon, back then. It was because of this that the crew of Evita cleverly used costumes and camera shots so that it was not noticeable that Madonna was pregnant with her eldest daughter who is now 24 years old.
11. Lisa Kudrow in Friends
When Lisa Kudrow played Phoebe Buffay on one of the most famous sitcoms, Friends, she became pregnant. This was right about when they started filming the fourth season. The producers decided to include her pregnancy in the story by having Phoebe lend her womb to her brother to conceive triplets because he and his wife couldn’t have kids on their own. Today, her only son, Julian, is 23 years old.
What is your favorite family series? What do you think of women who work while pregnant?
Preview photo credit Friends / Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, and, co-producer, lisakudrow / Instagram
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