For ads-free news, click here.
From ABC News: A North Carolina man says he lost 11 members of his family to Hurricane Helene.
Jesse Craig’s mother, father, aunt, uncle, great-aunt, great-uncle, cousins and second cousins were among the more than 230 people so far who died after Helene brought devastating rain, unprecedented flooding, mudslides and extensive damage to six southern states, including Craig’s home state of North Carolina.
The Craig family primarily lived in Fairview, North Carolina, about 12 miles southeast of Asheville. Both Fairview and Asheville, among other cities and towns in Buncombe County in the western region of the state, were hit particularly hard by extreme flooding, conditions that county officials on Sept. 28 described as “biblical devastation.”
“It’s unrecognizable now, but [Fairview] is where I was born and raised,” Jesse Craig told ABC Durham affiliate WTVD Oct. 8, adding that his family had been in the region for the last 80 years and locals even referred to the area informally as “Craigtown.”
According to WTVD, Helene’s effects led to a mudslide that wiped out multiple homes in Fairview and the people inside them.
Jesse Craig and his wife MeKenzie Craig told WTVD they are committed to staying and helping rebuild their shattered town.
A GoFundMe account set up to help the couple has already raised over $100,000.
In a Facebook post, Mekenzie Craig shared a link to a report about their story and wrote:
“All we wanted to do was help get the word out there about our Fairview community and show just how bad areas in WNC really are from Hurricane HELLene & by gosh that happened. 🤯”
“Jesse Craig — I am so proud of you for your strength and bravery in such a tragic time.
Thank you all for sharing our story & for sharing the GoFundMe to help all the families affected in “Craigtown”. We are still in shock over our loss + the devastation & are now in shock at how fast this story has spread. But the love & support we have received & continue to receive is overwhelmingly heart-warming. We could never thank you all enough. 💛.”
In another Facebook post on Saturday, Mrs. Craig shared a photo and wrote,
“Jesse Craig raised this flag as high as he could in the home place he grew up in + one of the few places I have been able to call home for the past 6 years.
“Our family + many others in this area of Fairview need your prayers — the amount of love + help we have received these past few days is truly amazing & we cannot thank everyone enough. It is times like these when you are made aware of just how wonderful your hometown + community truly is.”
WATCH the news report below for more details, and a heartbreaking interview with Craig.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL DML NEWS APP READERS ABOUT COMMENTS ON ARTICLES:
PLEASE ALLOW A FEW MINUTES FOR YOUR COMMENTS TO APPEAR, as the feature on our website that automatically approves comments is currently down. We are hoping it will be fixed soon, but it is out of our control. We are making every effort to come in every few minutes and manually push all pending comments out. We apologize for the inconvenience and ask for your patience and understanding until this matter is resolved. Please DO continue posting your comments. Your interaction and feedback is still very important to us. As usual, comments calling for violence or death toward any individual are not permitted.
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
