Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Reflections of the weekend

 This post is a reflection on our weekend trip to Louisiana to take supplies to our family.  First, our family members are all physically fine with minimal property damage to their homes.  However, there are many residents of the area that were not so lucky and had significant property damage.  

We often take things like electricity, air conditioning, and running water for granted.  While there are hundreds of power crews from all across the country assisting the local power companies, they are estimating that it could take weeks for power to be restored due to the damage to the various electrical substations.  

We saw the Louisiana National Guard and local police departments standing directing traffic and standing guard at the one gas station per town that was open.  People were lined up for hours to get gas with no guarantee there would be any fuel left when they finally took their turn at the pump.

Many stores that people rely on for food and supplies were not open because they either did not have a generator or could not get gas for their generator.  There were parts of the area that looked unscathed by the storm and 2 minutes down the road, it looked like a war zone.

The stores will re-open, the residents will rebuild, and the impacted cities will survive.  A few will be disheartened and relocate to another city, but most will join together despite differences and despite COVID19 to become a stronger community.

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