This is 90,000 square miles, and it's hard to get your arms around it. Eastern North Carolina was underwater in 1999, but this is three times what we went through.

I grew up in a university town in eastern North Carolina - what's called Tobacco Road. It was very rural.

I'm writing a new love story, set in eastern North Carolina. Surprise, surprise, huh?

Suffice to say the eastern part of North Carolina is going to get pounded with the heavy rain and strong winds.

Obviously, there are not enough Japanese children in each county in eastern North Carolina for all of us to have individual schools. Using a regional approach enables us to provide that degree of education so that when they're back in their country, they're even with all their classmates.

I love my State, because her people have been good and kind to me, and because her sky is above my home, as it will be above my grave.