2 killed by tornadoes in eastern N.C.

A cluster of strong thunderstorms swept across eastern North Carolina early today, spawning tornadoes that killed two people and injured others.

Just outside Wilson County's Elm City, a tornado killed Joshua Wiggins, a 11-year-old boy, and in the small Johnston County community of Kenly, Maryland Gomez, 60, died when a tornado struck her family's mobile home. Gomez's husband, who was injured, is being treated at WakeMed's Raleigh hospital. Another injured person was treated at Johnston Memorial Hospital in Smithfield.

The main tornado struck southeast of Kenly and plowed northeast through several miles of farmland near the Johnston-Wilson county line. Kenly Fire Chief Paul Whitehurst said the storm appears to have been an F-2 storm with winds of 130 to 135 mph.

The storm destroyed six houses and damaged many more. At least 20 families in eastern Johnston and southern Wilson counties have been forced from their heavily damaged homes. Limited storm damage has been reported in the Clement area, located in western Sampson County, where a few small tornados touched down, knocking down trees and power lines. A few trees fell on houses and a few small barns were destroyed but no injuries were reported.

Kenly residents picked through the rubble of a one-story brick home that was devastated. Family and friends piled up mattresses, took pictures of the damage and filled garbage bags with trash.

Family portraits had been tossed into the woods some 200 yards from the home. The skeleton of a camper the family had just bought rested nearby, amid other remnants thrown from the home.

One half of Mark Stephenson's home was flattened, while a tree had fallen through other half, on top of his 19-year-old daughter's bedroom. She was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

"It's hard to believe, it's hard to take in," Stephenson said. "We've got our lives and our health, so we're good to go."

N.C. Department of Transportation workers have been clearing fallen trees from roadways, and Progress Energy crews are restoring power along the storm's path, Whitehurst said.

An emergency shelter has opened at Kenly's Freewill Baptist Church, Whitehurst said.

U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, who represents the area, surveyed the damage Saturday, and Gov. Mike Easley plans to tour the area Sunday.

National Weather Service teams are surveying the damage near Kenly in northeast Johnston County and Elm City in north Wilson County, said Jeff Orrock, warning coordinator at the Raleigh NWS office. After that, they will check lesser damage in southern Johnston and northwest Sampson County, he said.

At least three and as many as five tornadoes formed in a "classic supercell thunderstorm," Orrock said.

"This may be a family of tornadoes that bounced along from about 2:30 in the morning until about 4," he said.

The tornadoes, which moved northeast along the Interstate 95 corridor at 45 to 55 mph, seem to have jumped over the city of Wilson, Orrock said.

November tornadoes often are deadly, Orrock said, in part because they usually hit at night when people are sleeping -- and unaware of the imminent threat.

"Not many people have something like a weather radio to wake them up," he said. "A lot of people aren't going to be aware of them until they're on top of them."

The tornadoes early this morning developed after a warm front pushed inland from the coast, then combined with instability and sheer in the upper atmosphere, Orrock said.

"Storms like that are long-lived, and have long, rotating updrafts," he said. "This was a classic tornadic storm."

Worse still, today's trouble might not be over, Orrock said.

"We're expecting severe weather later today, from the southwest to the northeast," he said.

Seven homes in Johnston County and six in Wilson were destroyed.

One business and 30 homes and outbuildings in Johnston were damaged.

Gov. Mike Easley's office said he planned to survey the damaged areas.

"I want to express my sympathy to the families who lost loved ones in this damaging storm as well as my concern for those who were injured, have had homes and property destroyed or damaged," Easley said in a statement. " We will do all we can to assist those in the affected areas."