Craig family lost 11 members to mudslides, flood in wake of Hurricane Helene
An area known as Craigtown in Buncombe County, North Carolina, that has been the home of the family of Jesse Craig for eight decades was turned into a graveyard by Hurricane Helene last month as a mudslide in the wake of “biblical” flooding from the storm killed 11 of his family members, including his parents.
"My mother and father, my aunt and uncle, my great aunt and uncle — I've lost cousins, second cousins, things like that, but 11 people overall from this mudslide," Jesse Craig told ABC 11 in an interview about the Sept. 26 storm.
As of Wednesday, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported 125 storm-related deaths in the state from Helene. North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper also confirmed on Tuesday that nearly 100 people are still missing, and as many as 10,000 residences are still without power since the passing of the storm that devastated Western North Carolina.
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Jessie Craig and his wife, MeKenzie, told ABC 11 that the mudslide swept through Craigtown in the wake of the storm and took several homes from the land. His family members in those homes all died because they had very little warning of the tragedy that would hit them.
“To say it was heartbreaking is an understatement,” wrote Misty Reeves in a statement on Facebook about the tragedy on Oct. 3, while sharing a pictured of the devastated valley in which the Craig family members lived.
“Their family lost 11 members…ELEVEN. In this valley you see in this pic there were 11 houses. All of them washed away. … Among many others,” Reeves said. “There were 3 landslides. One after another. It happened so quickly they couldn’t react fast enough. To those saying they should have left - nobody had any clue this would happen. We spoke to several who have lived here their entire lives and have never seen anything like it. This spot as well as towns were wiped out.”
MeKenzie Craig and her husband agreed that after enjoying the land that has been in their family for 80 years, nobody could have imagined the devastation that took place in the wake of Helene.
"I haven't been able to process it yet,” she said. “I don't even know what day it is."
According to Fox 8, 13 people, including the Craig family members, were killed in the flooding and landslide caused by Helene.
AC Reynolds Football Defensive Coordinator Bryan Craig told WLOS that he grew up on the land where his parents died.
Bryan Craig said some of his surviving family members were forced to watch, helpless, as the flood and mud swallowed up their loved ones.
"They saw it, witnessed it, and had to watch it all, and just the sheer, the water through the trees, the rocks, the mud, it's incredible," Bryan Craig said.
He explained that family who stayed in the area until the bodies of all their loved ones were eventually found had to escape the scene for a couple of days to process the tragedy.
Bryan Craig said a week before the storm hit, the family had celebrated a wedding. Leftovers from the wedding survived the storm, along with a Bible that didn’t even get wet.
"You come walking out of this debris with a fan from the wedding; how does that make it? Come walking out with a Bible from this debris that's not even wet — you can flip through the pages and read it. That's the way things work, I guess," Bryan Craig said. "We're going to have some really great pictures from that wedding and pictures of people who are no longer with us."
A GoFundMe campaign to help the family after the storm has already raised more than $269,000 of a $400,000 goal.
Family friend Steve Runion described the Craigs as “larger than life” and “pillars of the community,” WRAL said.
“They would do anything for you,” said Runion. “They really do have servants’ hearts. That’s the best way I could put it. … They were just loving people.”
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