01/10/2024
As we go about our first day of October and for those who celebrate, Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday: Remember our neighbors safe, found and missing, stranded, hungry and exhausted from the cleanup efforts after Helene. Stories of isolated retired people high up in the mountains found safe after 11 miles of hiking in to conduct a wellness check. Others who lost sleep but had a sound roof over their heads as the lights appeared to warn them and finally the daylight came to reveal rushing waters cascading over the roads and crashing trees down blocking any exit for hours to days. Let these images prompt us to prayer but also to action. Sending money to NGO’s on the ground feeding and sheltering the displaced. Fill a bus or truck with water, non perishables and clean towels and hygiene products. Imagine you have have been through 4 days of not knowing, not eating, not sleeping. Let your heart move you and your hands serve them. Thanks to Dean Rathbone for his poignant story telling (non-fiction) of life in the mountains. His repository of family stories in that region goes back generations. Our privilege of inconvenient short duration power outages and cell phone service outages is a stark contrast to those hundreds of thousands who have lost homes and livelihoods in a matter of hours. Count your blessings and count the ways you can help even if it’s sending a box of canned goods. I have been in touch with a friend who was on the highest peak in Virginia near Damascus. The only detail I needed was how I could help meet his most urgent need. When our friends can stand strong they can help our neighbors we do not know. Every little effort to put people back on their feet is a huge step toward recovery of an entire region totally devastated by Helene. There is a tractor trailer being loaded at Lake Monticello area Tractor Supply til Sunday. Locals can bring sensible supplies. Yes, even a small teddy bear may seem sensible but a can of baby formula or clean bottles would be more so. I walked fewer that 200 yards from my parked car next to clean portable toilets in the Shenandoah National Park to capture these images. I can’t imagine searching for access to an area deep in the Smokey Mountains trying to find loved ones in need of rescue 🛟
