None of the photos in this post are my photos, but hundreds like them are easy to find.
The Prattville Fire Department along with Swift Water Rescue Technicians from Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Calera, and Mobile arrived in North Carolina to help with search and rescue efforts after Hurricane Helene. (al.com.news/ Photo courtesy Prattville Fire Department, Prattville, Alabama)
ASHEVILLE, North Carolina – Members of the North Carolina Army National Guard work alongside volunteers at William W. Estes Elementary School to load meals and water for disaster survivors. (Photo Credit: FEMA)
GREENVILLE, South Carolina – Members of the South Carolina Army National Guard distribute meals and water to disaster survivors in Greenville. (Photo Credit: FEMA)
Workers, community members, and business owners clean up debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Marshall, North Carolina on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (Photo Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty)
Seeing photos of all the people working hard to help residents of North Carolina and other states recover from Helene…
…while watching Hurricane Milton’s progress toward Floria, a state still reeling from Hurricane Helene, it occurs to me that the meteorologists who speak the truth, despite death threats from viewers and vilification from state and federal politicians (and their donors), will one day be spoken of as heroes.
Rain begins to fall ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Milton, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (Julio Cortez/AP)
Those who spread and encourage deliberate misinformation, intimidation, and violence have cured me of wondering how certain events in national and world history ever took place. They’ve always been among us, and they aren’t in any way heroic or noble and never have been.
I’m encouraged by people who find ways to help and comfort before and after disasters. They represent the best in us. I don’t think my experience is unique in grieving not only for lives lost in such disasters, but for the people who somewhere along the way lost reason and compassion to the blend of cynicism and chaos they’ve ingested. It really is poison.
Duke Energy project manager Tiger Yates, bottom center, walks among hundreds of trucks ready to restore power once Hurricane Milton passes, on Oct. 8, 2024, in The Villages, Florida. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel via AP)
Thank you to all the helpers, whether businesses, government assistance, or good neighbors. More than once I’ve been on the receiving end of that help, especially after the Harvey flood, but after other weather disasters, too, and it made all the difference in the world.
Well said!
Thank you. I’m so tired of reading lies, seeing those lies debunked, and yet watching them continue to spread. When will the saturation point be reached and how much damage will be done by then?
In another disaster,
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/10/colorado-gold-mine-people-trapped
I’ve been down on a tour of that gold mine, on that elevator with a bunch of other tourists and my parents. It was during a visit when my Mom’s mom died. It was such a cold day there and also visiting in the town of Cripple Creek just a bit down the road.
There’s a family story related to Cripple Creek, but I can’t remember it at this moment (I was very young, so I’ve only heard it, don’t remember living it). I wouldn’t do well trapped in an elevator or a mine.
I wouldn’t either, especially that kind of elevator along with the knowledge of how far the bottom is.
I got stuck in the freight elevator of a high rise apartment building on the way to see a potential apartment the landlord’s staff was about to show me. It was only for about 15 minutes, and she repeatedly apologized to me for the failure. She had to press and hold a bell ringer, and there wasn’t any other form of communication installed. In the end, I ended up with an apartment only one floor up, so it wasn’t like I was in that deluxe apartment in the skyyy-yyyy-yyyy
Good thing you didn’t move all the way on up! =)
i am horrified by the destruction that happened. One of my favorite teams helping, is a mule team. I love that they go where nothing else can get. so many people are helping… some of those areas are so remote and when their private roads and bridges wash away….
thank God Americans will take care of each other in bad times.
I saw this today and clipped it. I don’t know how it relates to people NOT online, but hopefully it’s a somewhat fair representation. Maybe it’s not that there are so many bad actors but that they are the noisiest. Most of us try to be decent, help one another, and are grownups instead of yelling for attention like unhappy toddlers.