Buncombe County high school football coach Bryan Craig couldn’t reach his parents after Hurricane Helene ripped through North Carolina in September 2024, so he set out on what should have been a 25-minute drive.
Cell phone service was out in the area. His parents lived in the Fairview community in Buncombe County, which was among the hardest-hit communities in the state.
He tried to reach his parents but repeatedly found his path blocked by a mudslide triggered by the torrential rains. Craig eventually reached a friend’s home that was on the way to his parents’ home.
“You haven’t heard, have you?” the friend asked.
Craig lost 11 family members that day, including his parents, who were a year shy of celebrating their 50th anniversary. The bodies would be found days later.
“It’s been a rollercoaster,” he says today of his emotions.
Craig’s relatives are among 108 verified storm-related fatalities in North Carolina as of June 17, 2025, due to Hurricane Helene, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
That includes 43 in Asheville and surrounding Buncombe County, which would be the greatest loss of lives by a county in the state. The numbers also picked up deaths in places like Wake and Mecklenburg counties.
People had been braced for far more deaths, as social media gave the outside world an unfiltered view of houses carried along rushing water where roads had once been.
Don’t forget about us
“We still need help,” Craig said.
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While he says he thinks about what happened daily, it’s hard to open up.
He’d rather talk about the agencies still there, helping out, including Samaritan’s Purse, Edwin Charities based in Asheville and Beyond All Borders.
“We still have people who survived it who lost homes, and that needs to be addressed,” Craig said of the community. ‘The insurance companies say sorry, there’s nothing we can do, they are no longer with us. That was water damage. FEMA says there’s nothing we can do because they are no longer with us. I told people don’t forget about us in six months, and it’s longer than six months. And the mental aspect of it is tough. We don’t want to relive it, we just want people to help as much as possible.”
He points out that his family wasn’t the only one that lost multiple people that day. Every death, he said, was also a significant loss.
“Everything was gone’
Craig, the football coach, hiked the last quarter mile with a friend to get to where his family’s home should have been.
“The home was completely gone,” Craig said a year later, the pain still fresh. “Everything was gone. I never thought in my lifetime I would see something like that.”
Ronald Jesse Craig, affectionately known as “Hip”, and Sandra Brooks Craig, the parents, were later found, as were his sister and her husband, Lois and James Souther.
According to the obituary, Ronnie was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting, fishing, and spending time with his grandsons.
Sandy loved being at home, reading books, and cooking. ” She treated everyone like family and was a second mother to all her nieces and nephews,” according to the obituary.
The Craigs were just 18 and 19 when they married and, according to the family, “grew up together through all life’s ups and downs. ”
Ronnie’s sister Lois and her husband also lived in Fairview. An avid hunter and fisherman, his grandchildren called him “Paw.” Lois was called Granna and, according to the obituary, ” found great joy in hummingbirds and flowers. ”
Craig said those who went through it together have been a big source of support.
“It’s close-knit,” he said of his community and family, “and that’s helped everyone get through it.”
Nancy.McLaughlin@greensboro.com
336-373-7049
@nmclaughlinNR
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Nancy McLaughlin
Faith and Values Reporter
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