248 pp., 52 b&w photos, 3 tables, 4 maps, index
    $19.95 paperback, $32.50 hardcover
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Diane LeFiles is director of community schools and public information for the Edgecombe County schools. Once the flooding began, she was asked to handle public information and media relations for Edgecombe County. She worked through countless details of the disaster and gained a broad perspective of its impact on her community. She was interviewed in her Tarboro office in June 2002.

"Rebuilding was accomplished by all different people. What I observed was that whatever your skills were, that's what you did. If you could fix telephones, you fixed telephones. If you could spoon soup, that's what you did. If you could handle the media, then that's what you did. Everyone did whatever they did best to help it all come together. It didn't matter where you lived, which side of the river you lived on, or whether you spoke English, people just pulled together. I think it made the community stronger that what it was before."