"It could have been another way," said Keith, 70, as he prayed with a circle of family members in his kitchen.

Keith and his two sons all own homes along a stretch of N.C. 87 that was whipped by a tornado last week. The twister's 200-mph winds left eight people dead but spared the Keiths. Their homes took structural damage but were left standing.

As the Keiths prepared dinner for a crowd of sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren, the family members did all they could to maintain normal routines. But there were signs everywhere that things were far from normal.

Tarps hung on the rooftops. Traffic along the highway slowed as the curious looked on. Yard work meant using tractors to remove trees, downed in the early morning tornado that demolished 13 homes and an auto repair shop in this hamlet in eastern Columbus County about 20 miles west of Wilmington.

Down the road, a friend of the Martinez family pounded three white crosses into the ground, near where the family once lived in two mobile homes, side-by-side.

On each cross was written the name of a member of the Martinez family: Danny, Suley and Miguel. All died in the storm. A fourth family member remained in critical but stable condition at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill on Thursday night.

Help from all directions

That the state's deadliest tornado in 22 years struck just a week before Thanksgiving made this holiday all the more poignant here in Armour, which has been declared a disaster zone.

People from miles around held holiday luncheons for the tornado's victims. One, at the Riegelwood Community Center, was sponsored by International Paper, which employs about 1,000 people in surrounding communities. The other was held at the Life Changing Community Church in Armour, just down the road from the mobile home park that suffered the worst damage.

Both events overflowed with food and volunteers as people came from Wilmington, Whiteville and Fayetteville to offer assistance.

Though attendance was smaller than expected -- many of the storm victims instead spent the day with relatives or friends -- the feasts were bountiful. Tables at the church were loaded with 15 turkeys, a 45-pound roast beef, a hog off the grill, baked beans and sweet potato pie. A similar spread graced the community center.

Some of the volunteers had taken time off their jobs to help out.

"It's sad it takes a tragedy to bring us together, but it's still a good thing," said Alfonza Brown, 53, who lives in Sandyfield, a small town next to Armour.

The church's Thanksgiving event was organized by its pastor, Priscilla Jacobs. Jacobs, a member of the Waccamaw Siouan tribe, said since she arrived, the church's congregation has gone from being mostly white to a mix of ethnicities. The two dozen at the church on Thursday reflected no racial divisions -- a point of pride for those attending.

"As Jesse Jackson would say, we've got a Rainbow Coalition here," Marvin Fulton, a preacher steward at another nearby church, said as he dropped off a potato pie.

Late in the afternoon, volunteers began delivering food to surrounding homes to share the riches.

As the Keith family gathered after working outside, the blessing of the holiday was in the numbers. Fourteen chairs surrounded three different tables, set up throughout the house. The storm left no chair empty.

"I do have a lot to be thankful for," Keith said.