Lynda Mew had a view too horrible to ignore Tuesday afternoon. She was watching TV reports of tornadoes being sighted in the area when one touched down outside her rental house on Rock Ridge School Road. "I heard that trademark roar, and I know I was supposed to go in the bathroom, but I was too fascinated. I couldn't turn away," she said.

"I watched barns blow across that field. I saw the top of that house fly off," she said, gesturing to a ruined house at the intersection with Sadie Road.

It was over in seconds, she said later, sitting in her car behind her home. The tin roof had been her ripped off home, her car was dented, apparently by a flying section of a Bradford pear, but she and her possessions were fine.

The tornado that damaged Mew's home also damaged seven to nine others in the Sadie Road and Rock Ridge School Road area, including two that had their roofs blown off.

Alan Parnell. operations officer for Wilson County Emergency Medical Services, said Tuesday night that the tornado that ripped through this area was produced by the strong storms that moved through Rock Ridge between 4:30 and 5 p.m.

Parnell said the worst damage in the area is along Sadie Road and that there was no other damage in the county.

One person was injured during the storm. He initially refused care for a leg injury but later went to Wilson Medical Center for treatment, Parnell said.

How you can help

Send your donations to: Red Cross Regional Disaster Office 326 S. Franklin St. Rocky Mount, NC 27804

If you would like to designate your donation to benefit the victims of Tuesday's tornadoes, please write "For Wilson County tornadoes" on the memo line of your check.

For other donation arrangements, call the Rocky Mount office at 977-1720.

For more information on local efforts, call the Wilson-Greene office of the American Red Cross at 237-2171.

Volunteer efforts and the collection of donations for the tornado victims is being coordinated by:

Marsh Swamp Free Will Baptist Church, 6664 Rock Ridge School Road, 243-3063

Any donations will be accepted all day today until 9 p.m. and again tomorrow starting at 8:30 a.m. The church will also assist in coordinating volunteer group efforts. Tuesday night crews were working to clear houses, and the Wilson County Sheriff's Office was letting residents go back home to get their possessions.

The Wilson-Greene office of the American Red Cross established a shelter at Rock Ridge Elementary School, were many people gathered to find out news about what had happened.

Several roads were closed Tuesday following the storm including Rock Ridge School Road, Rock Ridge Sims Road, Fulghum Road, Sadie Road and Leonard Road, and officials are asking people to stay away from the area unless they live there.

The scene along Rock Ridge School Road Tuesday night was a blur of flashing police and fire truck lights, scattered tree limbs and shingles, and houses that looked as if they had been smashed by a hammer.

One home was missing half its roof, while another appeared to have only have damage to sidings and windows.

Nyoka Hinnant, 56, wasn't at her Rock Ridge School Road home when the tornadoes hit, but her husband, James, was.

Hinnant said James, who was napping, woke to the sound of heavy rain outside and went to a door in their home to look outside.

The next thing he knew, James was knocked onto the floor, where he remained until the storms passed.

"We're fortunate," said Hinnant, while standing outside the heavily damaged home that the couple built in 2001 at the intersection of Rock Ridge School and Sadie roads. "We're going to be OK."

The tornado scared everyone who lives in the area.

Shirley Strother rushed to her home through the worst of the storm. As she turned onto Healthy Plains Church Road, she thought, "Oh my Lord, that is one funny-looking cloud."

"Debris was flying everywhere," she said. "I was praying: Just let me get home and let there be a roof on the place."

She did, and there was. Damage at her home was limited to outbuildings, she said.

Paul Willoughby, assistant baseball coach at Hunt High School, was on the baseball field at the school when the tornado warnings were first issued.

Practice was halted, students sent to safety, and he headed to his Rock Ridge School Road home with his two young children, Kathryn and Barnes. His wife, Elizabeth, a teacher at Rock Ridge Elementary, was still at school.

Willoughby monitored the weather forecast, and once he started hearing talk of a tornado approaching the roads close to his home, he gathered the children and led them to a closet. It wasn't many minutes before he heard a roar and the sound of high wind and debris flying outside.

When it was over, they were safe, and the house was safe. A backyard building was destroyed, and five or six of his neighbors' homes were damaged, some severely.

The family spent much of the evening in the shelter at Rock Ridge School.

"We're all OK," Elizabeth Willoughby said.

Christy Choplin was watching TV with her sons, Rodman, 11, and Dylan, 4, when she heard the trees "splintering and splitting" outside her home on Healthy Plains Church Road.

"My boys were squalling and squealing," she said. "I made them get down in the bathtub, and then I laid across them."

The tornado passed in seconds, she said.

Danny Gay and John Fulghum left the machine shop where they work to check on friends. They were passing by Mew's house and saw the roof damage when Gay was struck by an idea.

"My brother, Douglas, passed away four years ago and left me these tarps," Gay said.

He went back home, picked up the tarps and nails. Then the two men used them to cover the roof.

"My brother was the type of guy who was always trying to help people. I like to think he'd appreciate this," Gay said as he wiped his brow, a handful of nails in his hand.

Mew was hoping that she could stay the night there.

"There's nowhere I'd rather be than home," she said, adding with a sad laugh: "It looks like I'm in the market for a new one."