After the Storm…

By Colleen Goodrich

As I am sitting here waiting for my reload to get home for a family emergency, I have been people watching, and talking to the locals in some of the harder hit areas of Louisiana from hurricane Ida. 

Most of the people are thankful for what they have and can not imagine not sharing it with the people who came to help them get through this disaster. Like with any group of people, you always have your “we don’t want your help, southerners take care of their own” and “we got this” along with the “that’s not good enough for me” people, and my personal favorite, the ones that the only reason they show up at the distribution lines is to get everything they can for free so they don’t have to spend their money on it.

Yes I have met and talked to a few of each, but I didn’t do the drive from Florida down to Louisiana for the ungrateful, and self serving.  I did it for the few that are grateful that they are able to get a few things to survive until they are able to get to the stores when they open up again.  These are the ones that share what they have with their neighbors, that were not able to get to the distribution line.

The lineman working on getting power back to the small towns are entertaining to say the least! When something breaks down, they have 5 people with enough tools to pull a motor out of a Semi at the ready, and they are there to help do it, and they know what they’re doing! (and it doesn’t have to be their crew, they work to keep everyone going) Parts are shared by everyone, so it gets done faster and they can go home.  

Truely, what it’s all about is watching and helping the people who came to help the ones that couldn’t get out of the way.