This is what everyone has been talking about today.
One realizes the great force when one sees a great swath that was cut through the pine forest and then took the roofs off of houses. Very frightening.

Location: North Carolina

Dear Rosemary,

Wow! Five miles away seems like a bit too close for comfort....but,
fortunately, New Bern was spared. Our prayers are with those who
have suffered injuries and losses.

Thanks for the photos.

Gov. Bev Perdue expressed how proud she was of the people in the state:

“In North Carolina, our resilience is strong,” she said. “We suffered
losses on Saturday. On Sunday, it was neighbors coming together.”

Mother Nature has great power. According to Sri Ramakrishna, ShmashAna-kAli
is the embodiment of the power of destruction. As a matter of fact, the
etymological origin of our English verb, "to smash", probably comes from
this ancient Sanskrit root.

Om Shanthi Om

Bev Perdue is from our hometown. It is strange to sometimes look up at the Farmer's Market and there she is standing beside you. My co worker runs into her a lot at Walmart and the lady across the way from me does her make up for her when she comes to town.
She has a big house out on the Trent River over near where Nicholas Sparks (best selling author) lives.

We do pretty good for a small town of about 60,000 or so.

It's a pretty day today. I am so thankful that there were no deaths as a result of the tornadoes here.

My heart goes out to those who did not fare so well.

Have a great day!
Rosemary

Location: North Carolina

Sheesh, my numbers are off. I must be thinking of the County figures (I work for the County). According to Wikipedia, there were 28,586 people in New Bern in 2008. I won't get that wrong again!

One of my coworkers at the County told me a story yesterday. She lives very close to where the tornado touched ground. She said at the time it arrived she was in a deep sleep but somehow eerily felt the atmospheric pressure make a change. She somehow interpreted all this in her sleep and woke up and yelled for her children to gather in the bathtub. Although the tornado did not hit them, she said that her bedroom window was open and the items on her dresser were swept to the window.

By the look on her face as she was telling the story I knew that the event had changed her somehow.

Have a great day.

Location: North Carolina

Hi Rosemary,

RE: "Co-worker's story"

Yes, it's strange how we can sense things like that, even during deep sleep.

I remember, several years ago, having a dream that the earth was rumbling
under my bed. Still dreaming, I called my mother and said: "I think that
was an earthquake". To which she responded: "If you are still in bed, that
was just an earth tremor...not a quake".

All that was in a dream. (I never actually called my Mum).

The next morning, when I put on the TV News, I discovered that their
was indeed a minor quake during the night.

Incidentally, Montreal is on a active fault line, and experts agree it's
only a matter of time before a "big one" hits.

Om Shanthi Om
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