Eleven members of the same family were killed during Hurricane Helene. On September 27, 2024, in Fairview, North Carolina, a mudslide tragically crushed the homes that members of the Craig family were living in.
According to the GoFundMe, the small community was known as “Craigtown,” as the family members lived in several houses beside each other, a resident told Fox News Digital. Other members of the Craig family are grieving and the community has rallied around them in support.
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The mudslide was “triggered without warning by unprecedented rains,” according to the GoFundMe, which was organized by friends of the family. The Craig family is described as “pillars of the community.”
Jesse Craig, one of the remaining family members, told ABC11 that he lost his mother, father, aunt, uncle, great-aunt, great-uncle, cousins, and second cousins.
“It’s unrecognizable now, but this is where I was born and raised,” he said while walking news correspondent Diane Wilson through his community. “We’ll never make sense of it. You know, it’s our community and our town,” Jesse’s wife MeKenzie said. “I don’t know that it’ll ever be the same. It’s been that life-altering a situation.”
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More than 230 people have died since Hurricane Helene struck in late September, as of October 10, 2024, according to Fox News Digital. Also from the Fairview community, Tony Garrison, a father of two and a firefighter with the Fairview Fire Department and Garren Creek Fire Department, died while trying to save people from the mudslides. The death toll is expected to rise as search efforts continue.
