‘Home Town’ Stars Safe But Heartbroken After ‘Devastating’ Tornadoes: How To Help

Though HGTV star Erin Napier’s hometown of Laurel, Mississippi, was spared during the outbreak of tornadoes that tore through multiple states on March 15 and 16, 2025, the nearby town where her best friend, Mallorie Rasberry, grew up was not as fortunate. According to WDSU, an “extraordinary tornado event” occurred when two back-to-back twisters hit the same path, just minutes apart.

“Laurel is safe from the storms,” Napier wrote in her Instagram Stories on March 15, “but some of our neighboring towns to the west were destroyed today.”

Napier shared that the companies she and her husband Ben Napier co-own in their town — including the Laurel Mercantile and Scotsman USA — would coordinate donation collections. She urged her followers to “help people who have lost their homes.”

Erin Napier’s Best Friend Says ‘There’s a Spirit That No Tornado Can Shake’

Laurel Mercantile/YouTube

On March 16, Rasberry — who co-owns multiple businesses in Laurel with the Napiers and frequently appears on “Home Town” to help her lifelong bestie with creative projects — shared on social media that nearby Tylertown had been devastated by tornadoes the day before. Erin and Ben both shared her post in their Instagram Stories.

“I’m so thankful that my little family is safe from the devastating storms yesterday,” she wrote in the caption, uploading multiple photos of destruction in her hometown. “My parents and my brother and his young family were right in the middle of both large tornados that ripped through Tylertown – it’s truly a miracle that everyone survived and have very little damage.”

She continued, “So many others can’t say that – family friends and neighbors left with slabs instead of homes and debris instead of farms, but there’s a spirit that no tornado can shake.”

Rasberry added that at the Laurel Mercantile and the Scotsman General Store, they’d begun to collect donations of water, diapers, cleaning supplies, and other critical items on behalf of Jones County Baptist Disaster Relief.

For those outside the area who want to help, she said, monetary donations can be made via Venmo (to the account JCBA_Pay) or by mailing checks to: Jones County Baptist Association, Memo: Disaster Relief, Jones County Baptist Association, 206 S 11th Ave, Laurel, MS 39440.

Who is Erin Napier’s Best Friend, Mallorie Rasberry?

Fans of “Home Town” know Rasberry from her frequent appearances on the show as Erin’s crafty best friend. She often helps Erin with DIY projects, from cooking jambalaya with friends when Erin was pregnant with daughter Mae to refurbishing an antique lamp for a client’s home.

The duo met in college at Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi, and Rasberry wound up marrying Erin’s first cousin, Jim Rasberry, and moving to Laurel.

“He and Erin are first cousins — their dads are brothers,” Mallorie told Gulf Coast Woman in 2018. “Erin was my roommate in Oxford and was doing her senior art exhibit on Jim and Danny’s First National Bank Building. She did all the ads, promos, and whole marketing package for the business opening so, naturally, Jim came up to Oxford that evening to see the exhibit. I met him at the exhibit and within two years, I had made Laurel my new hometown!”

Mallorie and Jim own Rasberry Financial Services and are co-owners of Laurel Mercantile, the shop where all “Home Town” merchandise and the Napiers’ favorite home products can be found. Their Laurel home, where they’re raising daughters Lucy and Lottie, is so adorable that it’s frequently featured in media outlets, including Country Living.