Tornado Touches Down in Onslow County, near Jacksonville NC

Death and destruction when severe weather ripped through the Southeast Saturday and Saturday night. You've seen most of the cvoverage on television or read about it in the newspaper or on-line. Kudos, by the way, to the team at WCT in New Bern. Not overly dramatic, "just the facts", as the severe weather made its way through eastern North Carolina. Good, up to the minute info.

Skip Waters was obviously in control of the situation while at least one other "team" seemed to be battling for face or voice time. For analysis sake, I took as much of that as I could, but had to switch over when the system was getting closer to our area. For a while, I felt like Jacksonville should be called the "Tween Zone"...between the Wilmington and the Greenville-Washington-New Bern TV markets, as we only got limited advance information. I can appreciate the urgency, though, of informing the masses further north, as some pretty nasty stuff was already on the ground, creating all sorts of havoc there. As it got close enough, Skip and the guys made sure we were aware of the imminent threat, and had some pretty good foresight into what was coming our way.

Last night, just when I...and others...thought it was all clear, the word came down. Tornado or tornadoes on the ground in Onslow. Homes destroyed. People trapped. The journalist in me had to move. With camera, wife and ever-so-nosy daughter in hand, we headed for one area of destruction. Managing to grab a ride from a local resident, I was dropped off in the neighborhood, and managed to snag a number of pictures. They are below.

Our thoughts and prayers go to all in the impact zone as they begin to work on repairing and rebuilding their lives.

                                              One of many homes in Montclair destroyed.

                                                 Trees and power lines downed      

                                              EMS and firefighters used portable lights

                                                             Full moon in the background

Transformers lined the streets and yards

Debris field

Camper destroyed

Homes ruined

Trees snapped off

Twisted remains

Remnants of a shed in a tree, 25 feet off the ground

These two kids were asked to safeguard a neighbor's guitar and shotgun