I was hypnotized by Irene for several days. First was the tracking and since Irene moved slow it took a while to hit the east coast. Then the poor reporters were standing in the wind and rain while they did their best to bring it to us as they were seeing and feeling it.

Just when everyone was thinking it wasn’t going to be so bad….even complaining the media made too much out of it with the forced evacuations etc; as Nature will do, she turned around and dropped tons of water in hilly Vermont. Well, that was the worst of it. The authorities kept telling everyone the flooding would be significant but of course the common citizen usually has a better idea about things.

I am an unusual woman. I listen to whatever the situation is and follow through by taking the precautions we are provided with. I say that with no pride for it is wise to consider the odds and then do the homework. These people have spent the larger part of their lives becoming educated in their chosen field and then working their best to keep the community at large……safe.

The flood pictures out of Vermont were heart rendering. I feel sorry for all of the ones who lost homes, family, pets………and if their homes were in tact, they were full of water which ruins everything that is below the water level. As I look around my home I see that would be almost all of the contents.

There will be years before things are returned to the prior conditions but as with the tornado that hit Greensburg, KS and Joplin, MO it seems to bring people together who have survived the worst and lived to tell it. They find the simple truth that “things” are not what make us who we are.

At times like these there is a wonderful coming together not only in the communities in the line of the disaster but good people are always better people when it comes to offering help to the needy. They have come from all over the country and even some from foreign countries to help in Joplin and Greensburg. Just when we’re about ready to think all courtesy and benevolence is dead, a tragedy shows it is not.

Perhaps we need a wakening to jolt us into action at times. Maybe we just need a really big reason to help or to give. Whatever it is, I commend everyone who dropped what they were doing and answered the call. We just might be worth saving after all…………..

Essentially Esther