TAMPA, Fla. — As the death toll from Hurricane Helene continues to rise, we’re learning more about the lives lost in the deadly storm. 

The latest nationwide total is nearly 200 with 12 people killed in Pinellas County.

One of the Bay area fatalities was Donna Fagersten, a mother and grandmother from Indian Rocks Beach was set to retire from her teaching job.

Her sons, John and Christopher showed Spectrum Bay News 9 family photos they were laying out to dry in the front room of their mother’s flooded condo.

“I got a call from my brother Friday morning when I was getting ready to go to school to teach and he let me know that he was talking to the sheriff’s office down here and that my my mom had passed, that she didn’t make it through the hurricane,” said Donna’s son, John Runner.

Loved ones say Donna had a big heart and enjoyed teaching.

Pinellas County Schools confirms Fagersten was a second-grade teacher at Ponce de Leon Elementary and had been employed with the District since 2006. She was supposed to retire September 30.

“She was a stay-at-home mom until we started going to school and then she finished her teaching degree and started teaching elementary school," said Donna’s son, Christopher Runner. "I think she cared a lot for the kids.”

Fagersten’s fellow teachers say the positive impact she left on her students will leave a legacy. Originally from West Virginia, the mother of two and grandmother of five, would have retired to the beach community she called home for years.

“She did love this area, that’s why she came down here to live, be near the beach,” said John.

Neighbors tell Spectrum Bay News 9 the 66-year-old initially did seek higher ground from her 1st-floor condo, going to a neighbor's but might have been going back and forth the check on her pet cat.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office says Fagersten was located in several inches of water and appeared to have drowned.

The list of Pinellas residents that died during Helene: 

• Steven Boelsche, a 95-year-old from Pinellas Park
• Aiden Bowles, a 71-year-old from Indian Rocks Beach
• Rachel Burch, a 37-year-old from Treasure Island
• Dominic Dewitt, a 60-year-old from Indian Rocks Beach
• Donna Fagersten, a 66-year-old from Indian Rocks Beach
• Joseph Galinski, a 67-year-old from St. Pete Beach
• Marjorie Havard, a 79-year-old from St. Pete Beach 
• Margaret McGarigle, a 93-year-old from Treasure Island
• Patricia Mikos, an 88-year-old from Dunedin
• James Thompson, a 55-year-old from Redington Shores
• Jerome Waite, an 89-year-old from St. Pete
• Francis Wright, a 71-year-old from Madeira Beach