' just feel worthless right now'

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By Jeremy Redmon

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

With the flood waters from Snake Creek swirling around his mobile home at 1 a.m. Monday morning, Craig Crawford set his 2-year-old son, Preston Slade, on their drying machine and told him he loved him and that everything would be all right.

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Craig and Bridgett Crawford lost their beloved 2-year-old son, Preston, in a flood that destroyed their Carrollton home. They are holding a photo of their sons with Cooper on the left and Preston on the right.

Jeremy Redmon, jredmon@ajc.com Craig and Bridgett Crawford lost their beloved 2-year-old son, Preston, in a flood that destroyed their Carrollton home. They are holding a photo of their sons with Cooper on the left and Preston on the right.

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The mobile home moaned under the weight of the rushing creek water and started to slide into the creek. It was time to make an escape.

Crawford’s wife, Bridgett, clutched their 1-year-old son, Cooper, and stepped outside. Crawford took Preston in his arms and joined her. He tried to set his son on top of their home but the strong currents swept them under and Crawford lost his grip on Preston.

As she clung to a tree with one arm and held Cooper with her other, Bridgett asked her husband if he still had their son. Craig didn’t want to tell her. She asked again.

“I said, ‘He is gone! He is gone!,’” Craig recalled, weeping on the front porch of his parents’ home Tuesday.

“I’m just glad I got to tell him I loved him before he left. I just don’t know how I am going to live through it. It is going to be rough just not seeing his face everyday. It is just an awful feeling. I just feel worthless right now.”

The Crawfords said they clung to trees for more than six hours before Carroll County firemen, sheriff’s deputies and others rescued them, using a rope secured to a tree. The currents were so strong they ripped off Craig’s clothes. The flood had dashed their mobile home into pieces and wrapped their red Jeep Cherokee around a tree. Their Dodge Magnum is still missing. Preston’s body was found further downstream later that day.

As friends and family delivered food and other donations to their home Tuesday, the Crawfords recalled how their son had a keen memory for names and loved his paternal grandfather, J.C. Crawford,. He liked popsicles and motorcycles and the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon. Preston’s grandmother, Pat Crawford, showed off the rocking horse Preston liked to ride while watching cowboy shows on TV.

Craig limped from his injuries. He had a two-inch gash on his right knee, which he believes he sustained while wedging open the door against the rushing water. Bridgett’s right arm was dark purple from vice-like grip she had on the tree that saved her and her 1-year-old son’s life.

“I wasn’t going to lose him,” she said of her son.

After authorities recovered Preston’s body, they put him in the back of an ambulance which they parked in his beloved grandfather’s front yard. It was there where his family was able to say goodbye.

A fund has been set up for the Crawford family’s expenses. People can donate at any First National Bank of Georgia location. For locations, go to www.fnbga.com/locations.htm or mail donations to P.O. Box 280 Carrollton, Ga. 30112. Make checks payable to the Slade Crawford Memorial Fund. Call 770-832-3557 for more information.