Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Power of the People

Today I want to talk about the American people. The reason for this is the recent tornado that hit my hometown and destroyed most of my neighborhood.

In case you have been living under a rock (or like me, not had power of Internet for the last few days, though my power is back on finally, no Internet yet) you may not have heard of the F5 tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa, AL causing massive destruction across the city and the rest of the state. Last count I heard, in Tuscaloosa alone, there are 47 confirmed dead and over 500 still missing. The city will take years to rebuild, yet with death and destruction all around, the people who have lost it all still lift themselves up and work to help one another.

Five minutes after the storm blew over my house I emerged wondering what wreckage I would find. I looked around at my neighbors homes to see trees down on top of them, trees down in yards, cars who's windows had been busted out from debris. My fellow neighbors emerged from their homes, dazed, as if in a dream, I must have had the same look on my face. We checked to make sure each of us were ok, then began surveying the damage to our homes. I was lucky. Other then my neighbors pecan tree down in my back yard and a few spots where shingles had been torn off, my house and property was undamaged.

We all pulled out cell phones and started trying to get in touch with our families to inform them that we were alright and to see how they were. Cellular service was terrible. Calling out was nearly impossible.

Some of my neighbors that had chainsaws saw that the roads were blocked by trees and knew if people were injured, emergency services couldn't get to them. They got to work clearing the way while the rest of us moved over to the next street, seeing if people were alright. Slowly over the coarse of an hour we made our way over the next 2 blocks... that's when we could see the true horror that this storm had left in it's path. The housing project that was nearby and all the houses close to it were gone, nothing but rubble remained. Police, firefighters and EMS were all working as hard and as fast as they could trying to pull people out of the rubble while trying to keep well meaning citizens out of the area due to exposed and busted gas lines and live wires laying about.

I describe all that so that you understand when I talk about how people have handled the aftermath.

The people of this city have all come together, volunteering their time and resources to help one another. We have people working side by side with the police and national guard to check homes and trees for people alive and dead. We have local businesses that were spared offering their services to those in need, not charging a dime. We have restaurants and individuals traveling the areas that can be traveled to offer food and water to all that need it. We have local hotels that weren't damaged offering shelter to the people who lost their homes. Even our locally owned Buddies food mart is selling gas at cost and donating gas to relief workers, just to help out.

The power of the people in this area is just a small showing of what makes the American people great. We have the most generous people in the world here in the USA. Where disaster falls we rise up and overcome it by helping each other as we can.