Storm Rages On

Didn’t post yesterday, was wrung dry for words after handling comms and other things from 7am-9:30pm — and I’m the fortunate one. I got to work from home since I still had power. My co-workers were at a no-power office and out on the roads assessing routes and my fellow COT family members were working the EOC or clearing debris or fixing lines or …or.. or..

And everyone is back at it today.

Myself included.

And I see a lot of chatter online complaining about lack of power or this and that from yesterday

And I want to point out to everyone to just take a min, stop and think …

The sheer volume of human capital, human energy expended during and after a storm is staggering.

The amount of logistics and semantics and scheduling and prioritizing and communicating – all without rest or much time to mentally prepare is overwhelming.

The amount of raw, physical work that is done, is superhuman.

The amount of people working, plans cancelled, sleep lost, meals missed is incalculable.

The tentacles of impact an event like this wraps around a community is monstrous.

Adding criticism, complaints and Monday Morning Quarterbacking doesn’t serve any purpose other than to feed the angry monster in all of us.

The monster.

The one that can’t control the forces of nature that descend on us and thus lashes out.

The one that can’t bear the burden of personal responsibility and thus hands out blame.

The one that can’t fathom an experience other than their own and thus doles out judgement.

Luckily, all of the people I associate with are not monsters.

Most of them work some part of all this crazy, crisis management.

The others are well wishers, checking in and giving support, bringing food or offering to babysit or forwarding information or just being… grateful.

So next time, anytime, a crisis happens in your community – don’t let the monster rear his ugly head because you’re hot, tired, hungry, inconvenienced, scared, sad, mad, alone, overwhelmed or anything else because I guarantee you, there are people out there feeling all those things and more who are working their asses off for you and your family!