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Matthew Kabealo, father of Chloe-May, Jacob and Ella-Jane, lost his partner Stephanie King and two of their children when the car they were travelling in was washed off the road and into the Tweed River in Tumblegum. Picture: Facebook
A COMMUNITY has rallied around the father and daughter who have lost their three closest family members in the cruellest tragedy of the NSW floods.
Friends and well-wishers have raised almost $60,000 for Matthew Kabealo and eight-year-old Chloe-May, the only survivor of the car accident that killed her mother and two siblings.
“So sorry,” Danie Sorensen wrote on the GoFundMe page set up by Mr Kabealo’s colleagues at Kingscliff Bowling Club and across the industry.
“Dad and daughter will need each other today and always.”
Well-wishers urged Mr Kabealo to draw strength from his one surviving child. Picture: FacebookSource:Facebook
The bodies of Stephanie King, 43, and her children Ella-Jane, 11, and son Jacob, 7, were recovered from the Tweed River in NSW yesterday. The Bilambil Heights mother was hailed a hero yesterday after she was found cradling one of her two children in the front seat of her car.
Police believe Ms King helped Chloe-May to escape and swim to shore before she was overwhelmed along with her other two kids.
Donors praised young Chloe-May for running for help. “She would have been so scared,” wrote Jackie Campbell. “So brave.”
Ms King and 11-year-old Ella-Jane, left, died along with seven-year-old Jacob, right, leaving behind Mr Kabealo and Chloe-May, centre. Picture: FacebookSource:Facebook
Chloe-May, centre, ran for help but her sister Ella-Jane, left, and brother Jacob, right, did not survive. Picture: FacebookSource:Facebook
Others offered their deepest condolences to Mr Kabealo and urged him to fight on for Chloe-May. “I hope you can draw some strength from friends, family and strangers whose hearts are breaking for you,” Lisa Begbie wrote. “Rip [sic] to your wife and daughters. Hold Chloe-May close and be strong for her.”
The family’s Hyundai iMax veered off muddy and debris-strewn Dulguigan Road in Tumbulgum and flipped into the flood-swollen river on Monday. It appears the road had not been closed off as police believed it should have been.
The fundraising page has received more than $57,571 in donations for the father and daughter who now have only each other to rely on.
Ms King, 43, is thought to have saved Chloe-May, 8, before she and the other two children were overwhelmed by the water.Source:Facebook
Ms King, from Bilambil Heights, has been praised as a hero after she was found cradling one of her dead children. Left to right, Ella-Jane, Jacob and Chloe-May. Picture: FacebookSource:Facebook
The page reads: “The funds raised through your kind donations will help Matt cope financially and emotionally with this devastating event in the short term and help him and his surviving daughter rebuild their lives.”
The tragedy comes after days of devastating flooding in northern NSW, with two women aged 36 and 64 confirmed dead and a man dying of a heart attack.
Lismore, Murwillumbah and Tweed Heads residents have been given the all-clear to return home after floodwaters washed through the region.
In Queensland, Rockhampton is bracing for the worst of the cyclone’s after-effects.