A family in North Carolina is deep in grief after losing 11 family members in Hurricane Helene.
The town of Fairview is also known as “Craigtown” after the Craig family who lived in that town in the Appalachian Mountains for eight decades.
A total of 13 community members were lost that day.
“It’s literally like our world has been turned upside down,” Mekenzie Craig told Fox News Digital. Mekenzie is a Craig by marriage.
Her husband, Jesse, lost his parents, two of cousins, an aunt and uncle and a great-aunt and great-uncle when a mudslide swept them away.
“There were a lot of heroic acts over here that day from a lot of different people,” Jesse said. “It just shows how tight-knit of a family we are and how tight-knit this community is and how much we love each other.”
A tree came crashing down on the couple’s house and both of their cars when Hurricane Helene came through.
They were later informed by Jesse’s brother that many family members did not make it.
“They’re gone,” Jesse’s brother said in a phone call. “There is no way they survived that.”
There was also no way for them to be prepared for what happened.
A part of Jesse’s parents’ home was not damaged in the storm. This leaves them wondering if the outcome could have been different if the parents had been in another room.
Mekenzie said she wasn’t immediately concerned when she and Jesse started to get flood alerts on their phones Sept. 27 while they were at home in Fletcher, North Carolina.
“But we’ve had those before. It’s not like we’ve never had flood warnings before,” she said. “But we obviously did not expect it to be as awful and catastrophic as it was this time. Nobody expected this.”
And there was no evacuation notice, they said.
“If anyone knew anything close to this would have happened, no one over here would have been at home,”Mekenzie said.
Ninety people in North Carolina lost their lives in Helene. More than 250 people died across multiple states in the southeastern U.S.
Countless others are still missing.
The aftermath of the storm left more than a million people without power. Linemen are still working 16- and 17-hour days to bring electricity back.
While traveling through town, people see destroyed houses, heavily damaged cars and an orange “X” near places where bodies were found.
“I was born and raised here in this little community. This is all my family. My grandfather bought this land a long time ago,” Jesse said. “So I grew up here, and this was such a beautiful, wonderful little slice of mountain living, you know? It was safe. We just had a wonderful childhood. Growing up, you had a really tight-knit community.”
It is still hard for Mekenzie and Jesse to comprehend what all they lost.
“We see it, but your mind just can’t make sense of it. You don’t think it’s real. You can’t comprehend the gravity of what happened,” Jesse said.
As the family grapples to heal, a GoFundMe named “Support the Craig Family After Tragic Loss” has been set up to help the Craigs pay for funerals for 11 people, rebuilding costs and medical expenses.
“That’s all we really need is financial help. We have been overwhelmed with so many people from all over the country with supplies. It is amazing,” Mekenzie said. “[A]lmost every church in this area, you can go in, and there are literally grocery stores in these churches.”
The Craigs also encouraged others to find a local agency that has food, supplies and other necessary resources if help is needed.
“Find a local entity and go,” Jesse said. “They will give you whatever you need. Most of them have plenty. Don’t hesitate to go and get help if you need it.”
