It’s been a rough week, for all of us. Torrential rains and strong winds brought down trees and flooded homes and communities across the region. Folks were left without electricity for days and – when electricity did start coming back on – some found their appliances damaged by the power surges.
Families lost groceries.
Businesses lost inventory.
And folks with loved-ones dependent upon electrically powered medical devices worried for their health.
Meanwhile events and appointments were cancelled or rescheduled as the rain, so desperately needed after our long, dry summer, continued to fall on those working to reopen roads. restore power and get us back to a sense of normalcy.
As of this writing (Monday evening) there were still over 1,000 Grayson Rural Electric customers without power. That’s out of the more than 4,000 who were without power when the cooperative began reporting service updates on Saturday.
This doesn’t include those on AEP/Kentucky Power or associated utilities who experienced power outages as well.
But, even with all that, Carter County got off pretty lucky this time. In the Asheville, North Carolina area, for instance, entire communities were swept away by flood waters tearing through the mountains, with hundreds lost and hundreds more missing and presumed dead. The loss is overwhelming. Families wait, and hope, and mourn, while rescue crews do what they can for those they can locate.
Devastating doesn’t even begin to describe the situation.
It’s the kind of loss that makes anyone with any semblance of humanity, or the least shred of empathy, take pause. Or at least you’d think it would, until you get online.
There you’ll see folks taking to opportunity to blame the victims for not being more prepared – as if hurricanes striking hundreds of miles inland, in the mountains, are a regular and predictable thing. Only slightly less odious are the folks who briefly acknowledge the devastation before using it as a segue for pushing their own political agenda.
There’s a time and a place to discuss the man-made role in climate change and related severe weather. It’s something we need to take seriously. But that time is not when more than 600 people are still missing and unaccounted for, and thousands more are without food, water and electricity. That place is not their devastated communities.
What we need to do now is to come together and help our neighbors out. If you have money to donate, donate it to folks working in those communities hardest hit. There are numerous resources online. Find one you can trust and give them what you can spare.
Closer to home, check on the folks around you.
If your neighbors don’t have electricity or hot water, offer to let them take a shower at your house. Let them charge their devices at your home so they can stay in contact with family, employers, and the folks working to restore their power. Cook them a hot meal, or take them a thermos of coffee while they work clearing trees. Let their kids use your Wi-Fi to watch cartoons or play a game.
You don’t need a lot of money to do the right thing, and provide some peace and comfort to those around you who are struggling.
You just need to make the choice to be a decent human being, and to use the resources and skills available to you when you can.
Because we all need a good neighbor sometimes; and the only thing more rewarding than having one, might just be being one.
