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The images from western North Carolina are devastating.
Not just homes washed away, not just cars stranded, but lives lost and entire towns and communities destroyed. Roads and bridges wrecked, cell towers down, people hurting.
I was in several of those areas on two occasions this past summer. It's a beautiful part of our state with great people.

Sometimes, there are few words than can truly paint a picture to give account for the horrific and tragic times people experience. Such is true for the western part of North Carolina right now.
The devastation left behind sweeping waters is immense. The fear people felt when having to climb out their home onto their roof, hanging on for dear life, is unimaginable. The number of people found deceased ticks upward each day.

This photo published in The Nashville Graphic on Oct. 14, 1954. Pictured were 12 new members of the Nashville Future Homemakers of America chapter, dress in their initiation garb.

D.R Horton, Inc. to Charvonna Grant; Saddlebrook Subdivision, Lot 39
NC Land Investments, LLC to Tar River Land Conservancy; 50.07 acres on Shearin Road in Whitakers
Timothy Craig Johnson and Stephen E. Webb II to Zackery Craig Johnson; 977 Thompson Chapel Road, Wilson
Kervin Hernandez to Stephanie Guadalupe Trujillo-Macias, Stephanie Guadalupe Trujillo Macias; 2102 Bailey Street, Rocky Mount; $175,000

New single family dwelling; 4310 Cool Water Dr., Bailey; Elizabeth Bristow; $250,000
Multi-sectional; 6123 Taylors Gin Rd., Castalia; David Jardine, Kelly Barnes; $200,000
Multi-sectional; 7425 Schooners Rd., Bailey; Paradise Homes of Johnston County of NC Inc.; $225,000
Renovation/alteration; 8081 Pittman St., Battleboro; Deyton Evans; $26,000

ROCKY MOUNT - North Carolina and her people are working to pick up the pieces of their homes, businesses and lives from the effects of Tropical Storm Helene, including last Friday's EF-3 tornado touchdown in Rocky Mount and flooding with road destruction in mountain areas, leaving shortages in gasoline and supplies.
UNC Nash received 10 patients hurt in Friday's tornado, with three of those transferred to ECU Health due to the extent of their injuries.

NASHVILLE - The Nash County Board of Elections Office, located in Room 109 of the Ag Center at 1006 Eastern Avenue, Nashville, will be open this Saturday, Oct. 5, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Staff will be on hand to assist with voter registrations, absentee ballot requests and election Photo IDs.
"This is a good opportunity for individuals who work during the week to stop by and make sure their voter information is up-to-date or obtain an election Photo ID, if needed," said John Kearney, Elections Director for Nash County.

NASHVILLE - Nash County Health Department officials want to consolidate Nashville and Rocky Mount offices into the county-owned MedPark building on the grounds of UNC Nash Hospital, but commissioners are delaying a decision until plan specifics are worked out for either mobile services or a satellite office in the southern part of the county.

SPRING HOPE- The 51st annual Spring Hope Pumpkin Festival gets underway this Saturday, Oct. 5, although organizers had to scramble to find enough pumpkins to decorate the town.
"We normally buy about 200," said chamber volunteer Karen White, "but we had to go a lot further afield this year because the pumpkin crop has really taken a hit."

NASHVILLE - An additional full-time school resource officer (SROs) is planned to add to police coverage of Nash County public schools this year, with partial funding in place and more anticipated to cover expenses.
Leondus Farrow, Asst. Superintendent, presented SRO contracts to the Students Support Services and Operations committee of the NCPS Board of Education Monday, Sept. 30; the contracts, one each with the Nash County Sheriff's Office and the Rocky Mount Police Department, are being forwarded to the full board for their approval at the Oct. 7 board meeting.

NASHVILLE - Nashville's first Farmers' Market of 2025 will be bringing more than fresh flowers, meats and veggies - a super-sized free concert venue may end up packing the streets for blocks around, with crowds similar to those attending the first Egg Drop this past January.
The folk-rock band Scythian is being hired to perform as the April 11 premier kick-off to the Farmers' Market season, although the decision to do so generated some hard looks at cost and a few doubts at the Oct. 1 meeting of the Nashville town council.

Pictured, left to right, Gladys Battle, Brenda Matthews, Mary Ann Perry, Luanne Osborne, Fay Hairston, Ronald Jenkins, Kay Weaver, Tony Shearin, Mary McCall, Mattie Washington, Sandy Richardson - members of the Rowdy Rockin' Seniors' performing group, pose prior to taking off for state competition in Cary Friday, Sept. 20.

NASHVILLE- Hundreds of local churches and businesses in Nash county are collecting donations for Hurricane Helene Disaster Relief to help out the folks in western NC.
One such drive is being conducted by Nash Produce at 6160 South NC 58 in Nashville, designated as a regional distribution center by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety Emergency Management, according to Robin Narron, Marketing Director for Nash Produce.

ROCKY MOUNT - The resignation of a District Court Judge stirred Nash county democrats to make plans to convene with the purpose of selecting a new democratic nominee for the ballot, but according to the State Board of Elections, that's not the way it works.
William Robert Solomon Jr. of Rocky Mount, District Court Judge for District 8, Seat 3, reportedly resigned his current appointment as judge during the third week of September but has yet to issue an official statement.

WILSON- New opioid treatment and recovery resources in the Bailey area will be possible under a portion of nearly $9 million in funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
HRSA announced the investment Sept. 23, specifying that the money was targeted for substance use disorder treatment in rural counties. The Wilson County Substance Abuse Coalition is due to receive nearly $3 million over the next three years, with the fiscal year 2024 amount over $749,000.

Nashville Chamber of Commerce board members Koy Worrell (left) and Johnnie Brannan (right) cook prepare hotdogs at the chamber's fall member guest social. Graphic photo by Jo Anne Cooper

NASHVILLE- Nashville's historic courthouse made more history Wednesday, Sept. 25, when it was the setting for a session of the NC Court of Appeals.
Invited by Timothy W. Wilson, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge, a special session of court was conducted by judges Valerie Zachary, Michael Stading and Jefferson Griffin, who heard arguments in one criminal and one civil case.
Zachary, from Yadkin county, was elected by voters to an eight-year term in 2016 and is a candidate for re-election to the NC Court of Appeals this November.

SAN DIEGO - Seaman Jaden Collins, a native of Nashville, serves the U.S. Navy assigned to Helicopter Maritime Strike Wing Pacific (COMHSMWINGPAC).
Collins graduated from Leesville Road High School in 2022.
Collins joined the Navy two years ago. Today, Collins serves as a logistics specialist.
"I always knew I wanted to join the service because my grandpa was in the Army and my mom was in the Air Force," said Collins.

NASHVILLE- A Maryland man is in the Nash County Detention Center without bond after his arrest Saturday near the Virginia state line - but a dog that was in the car he allegedly stole from Pennsylvania is still missing.
Kenneth Wilson Crider, 43, of Poolesville, Maryland, is charged with felony hit and run, assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a stolen vehicle and felony flee to elude law enforcement, among multiple other charges, after a high-speed chase that began in the area of Octavia Drive, Dortches, Saturday.

RALEIGH- A Rocky Mount man and former felon caught last year in possession of drugs and a stolen gun has been sentenced to 13 ½ years in federal prison.
Marcus Antonio Lucas, 48, with a last listed address of 114 South Pine Street, Rocky Mount, was sentenced Sept. 18, 2024, receiving a revocation for violating his federal probation at the time of his latest arrest in August of 2023.

WILSON - Carolina Family Health Centers, Inc., which includes its Elm City facility, the Harvest Family Health Center at 8250 NC Highway 58 South, has been awarded a two-year, $1.1-million-dollar grant from the Health Resources & Services Administration, along with its first Health Center Quality Leader (HCQL) Gold badge.

NASHVILLE- The first Community Plant Swap, hosted by Nashville's Parks and Rec department at its 200 Boddie Street Rec Center and co-planned by th Harold D. Cooley library staff, drew a crowd of 19 to the free event Sept. 19 despite a rainstorm and has been deemed a success, with plans already underway to host another next fall.

Did you know that there is now agreement among scientists that the very fear of a certain disease - such as cancer - may have a lot more to do with why we get it than we ever suspected? God has known that since he breathed life into us. He tried to teach us that very lesson through the life of Job. Isn't it strange that while science and religion fight to convince us that no common ground exists on which they may stand, science has proven that God's word was right all along? Indeed, as God told the prophet Isaiah: "So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void". (Isaiah 55:11)

As Psalm 119 draws to a close, the psalmist prays with increasingly greater urgency. Throughout this psalm, he maintains his confidence in God's word to meet. Yet, as the psalm draws to a close, the writer's difficult circumstances have not changed. In the opening of this stanza, he is still suffering affliction. And his experience both issues us a warning to heed and gives us an example to follow. Devotion to the Lord will not solve all your problems. It may produce new, big, and long problems.

The Watchman Quartet will be performing on Saturday, Oct. 5 at Red Oak Baptist Church Family Life Center at 2 p.m. Come enjoy some great music as they celebrate 50 years!
Welcome to Taylor Brantley, new member of Red Oak Baptist Church!
Congratulations to Bradley and Kristen Boone on the birth of their son, Wyatt Hunter, on Sept. 18.