Shooting hurricane damage in Mississippi....
Megan and I arrived in Laurel at dawn on Saturday. We’d driven the entire night from Shelby on short notice, madcap packing and cheap cola. That part was me.
More than anything else, this reminds me of the hurricanes of eastern North Carolina, where I grew up. Thankfully there has been no major water damage this far from the coast, but the pines snapped off halfway up, the brush piles in the roads, the trees through the houses….
It’s going to be a long time and take a lot of help before things get back to normal here. Some people around are predicted to be without power for weeks if not months. And without a stable supply of gas, even when people do have charity to give, they can’t get there. Roads are rough. Utilities are iffy. There is a curfew.
But telephone service is coming back. More gas stations have more gas. Stores are starting to reopen. I bought a milkshake at a drive-thru – a simple ordinary act that tasted devine….
What’s most incredible to me, though, are the high spirits people are in. When folks come to a stoplight that isn’t working, they patiently wait their turn, do unto others… and then calmly proceed in a very British fashion.
I’ve heard about the random acts of kindness I remember from bumper stickers and past hurricanes I’ve been through. How folks from my entire neighborhood banded together into a roving band of chainsaw-wielding driveway-clearers, just like the stories I’m hearing here of private citizens’ random, drive-by food distribution.
A police officer just came to the door to at the paper where we’ve been camping out, the Laurel Leader-Call. He was checking on the reporter here who had a flat tire.
Darn these people are nice. What’s wrong with them?
Perhaps they are digging into the post-hurricane labor I remember – the chainsaws, rakes, and trucks that never seem to end until at some point you see the satisfying progress being made and are pleased all the more thanks to the pains involved.
Possibly people are remembering the joys of lending a hand, cooking a meal for a neighbor, the satisfaction or helping a stranger….
Maybe folks have learned that no matter how bad things get, there is always much more to be thankful for.
At least that’s what they’re teaching me.
More than anything else, this reminds me of the hurricanes of eastern North Carolina, where I grew up. Thankfully there has been no major water damage this far from the coast, but the pines snapped off halfway up, the brush piles in the roads, the trees through the houses….
It’s going to be a long time and take a lot of help before things get back to normal here. Some people around are predicted to be without power for weeks if not months. And without a stable supply of gas, even when people do have charity to give, they can’t get there. Roads are rough. Utilities are iffy. There is a curfew.
But telephone service is coming back. More gas stations have more gas. Stores are starting to reopen. I bought a milkshake at a drive-thru – a simple ordinary act that tasted devine….
What’s most incredible to me, though, are the high spirits people are in. When folks come to a stoplight that isn’t working, they patiently wait their turn, do unto others… and then calmly proceed in a very British fashion.
I’ve heard about the random acts of kindness I remember from bumper stickers and past hurricanes I’ve been through. How folks from my entire neighborhood banded together into a roving band of chainsaw-wielding driveway-clearers, just like the stories I’m hearing here of private citizens’ random, drive-by food distribution.
A police officer just came to the door to at the paper where we’ve been camping out, the Laurel Leader-Call. He was checking on the reporter here who had a flat tire.
Darn these people are nice. What’s wrong with them?
Perhaps they are digging into the post-hurricane labor I remember – the chainsaws, rakes, and trucks that never seem to end until at some point you see the satisfying progress being made and are pleased all the more thanks to the pains involved.
Possibly people are remembering the joys of lending a hand, cooking a meal for a neighbor, the satisfaction or helping a stranger….
Maybe folks have learned that no matter how bad things get, there is always much more to be thankful for.
At least that’s what they’re teaching me.
posted by John Derrick | 11:05 PM
2 Comments:
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