Category: Healing

  June 23, 2016,

in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, a terrible flood washed away multiple homes and killed an undetermined amount of folks, (they still haven’t found all the missing). Some of the people lost their homes from the flood, some from natural gas explosions in their homes due to the flood, and worst of all, some haven’t found their missing loved ones.

My husband and I were traveling from Kentucky to Washington, D.C. for our anniversary trip. Just days before we were to leave his family’s farm in Versailles, Kentucky, we watched the news. The horrible event unfolded on the television and our first thoughts were, WOW! Were we glad we weren’t driving through there today! Then I thought of the aftermath of such a devastation, and I knew, it would take their entire community to pull each of them back up again, just like it did for us in the Valley Fire.

The flash flooding was relentless, and even days later, as we drove right through that town, there was still flash flood warnings and intermittent thunder storms hitting their area. Howard’s Creek runs right through the town and traveling on Interstate 64, we looked down onto the remains of it, mostly debris. The receded waters unveiled a terrible twisted pile of what remained of homes, cars, fallen trees, and power poles. It was a ghastly site!

As it turned out, I had to use the bathroom. We pulled off at an intersection a few miles down the road at a McDonalds. Charlie needed some caffeine, so he grabbed a coke while I used the restroom. When I came out, he was in a conversation with two women standing in line. He’d already gotten his coke but continued to talk as I walked up.

  The woman doing the talking had lost her home in the flood and had asked Charlie if he too, had lost his home. His heart went out to her and he listened to her go on and on about how the house was a family home that had been in her family for generations. She was pretty devastated, but determined they would rebuild. She said she was so lucky to have gotten out with her life and her family as well.

Their county had received over 9 inches of rain in the recorded 24 hour period, with Howard’s Creek flooding the town so badly, that the intersection of Route 60 and Interstate 64 looked like a lake at one point.

When we got back into our rental car to continue our drive, we were a bit melancholy. Although we didn’t know a soul in that town, we weren’t strangers to a community in need. Our friends and family that lost homes or suffered other on going problems from the Valley Fire, had similar issues. Powers out of your control can leave you feeling helpless and vulnerable.

I found a website that Brad Paisley has promoted to help the children of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. It’s SavetheChildren.org/WestVirgina and if you are interested, you can go there to donate. Also, the Red Cross has set up a way to help as well.

We only just returned from our 25th wedding anniversary trip, and now that I’ve settled back into my routine, I found that the first thing I should write about was the people of this hard hit town.

Mother Nature can be a volatile thing. Any one of us could be a victim. It is important to let those you know and love how you feel, and always try to be as kind as you possibly can. Because you never know what the person standing in line in front of you has been through. At the very least, do like Dolly Parton does. “If you see someone without a smile, give ’em yours!”

 

 

  Just days after the Valley Fire

the donations started coming in. Thoroughly generous citizens of the community started purging their belongings, trying to find items to donate to the evacuees of the fire. People and businesses donated items from bottled water, to baby formula, hygiene products, blankets, canned food, batteries, sleeping bags, pillows, and even underwear. Tons, (literally) of items were being sent to various locations for distribution to the suffering people who so desperately needed them. The problem was, who would take on and orchestrate this enormous task of organizing all these items?

The Red Cross or FEMA hadn’t even begun the effort yet because of all the proverbial “red tape.” It ultimately fell to the local citizens to help out their fellow neighbors and set up the locations, communicate with local authorities, and put in an ungodly amount of man-hours.

I turned to social media, as we all seem to do nowadays, searching for ideas on how I could help. I had gone through my own household and had my daughters go through their own belongings, to decide what we could do. Somehow that wasn’t enough, but it was a start.

I will say, that on my Facebook feed, two wonderful women who are really heroes to our community, took the bull by the horns and used our town’s fire department social hall to house thousands upon thousands of items to give away. Sarah and Melissa are rock stars! They not only spearheaded the operation, they ran it with three kids a piece in tow!

Melissa, having health issues at the time, refused to rest. I was there helping organize infant clothing by sex and size, and bagging up sets for giving away, while she ran around and told each of the volunteers like myself, what needed to be done. My 18 year old daughter, sorted baby formulas, pacifiers, and other infant items that continued to arrive while we worked. Melissa and Sarah had us all, working like fine oiled machines, like they did this sort of thing every day! I was truly in awe of them.

At the Clearlake Oaks Moose Lodge, people fed, clothed, and housed the homeless. Tents were set up and RVs all over the property. The kitchen was running full board. Strangers became family in the hours, days, and weeks that followed.

The Napa County Fairgrounds

housed hundreds of Hidden Valley Lake and Middletown citizens that evacuated. There, they had showers, shelter, and were fed, as well as collected donated items they needed.  Other locations were the Clearlake Senior Center, Kelseyville High School and the Lake County Fairgrounds became the Valley Fire firefighters base camp. They used the bathrooms, showers, kitchen and made sleeping quarters, for all the firefighters that traveled from far away.

This was amazing to me. All the effort put forth from so many to do so much for people that they somewhat knew, or for others, didn’t know at all. The human condition is still compassion after all! I hated to admit to myself, but I’d all but lost hope in most people! The world is full of hate and bitterness, and all you ever hear on the news is negative. But THIS!! This was people reaching out with their hearts! I have renewed faith.

So this is why I felt so compelled to write Out of The Ashes. I saw so many people in pain, ashamed even to collect the donated items that they so desperately needed. I saw their pride shattered and some of their dignity stolen. I wanted to give the people that I both know, and don’t know alike, to read a happy story about what can happen after such devastation. Love.

If you would like to share a story of your own that you’d like to see in the comments of my blog, please add them here. You will see your comments in a day or so. If you would rather keep it private, but would like to contribute a story for use in a character in my book, you can email me at punkandude@gmail.com and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Next Blog: As I’ve said, I would like to post the interview I promised, but it may end up as two separate blogs. It all depends on if I can narrow it down short enough to make it one.

Coming up, I will give you that first chapter. For now, I am looking very much forward to this Memorial Day Weekend. Thank a vet it you know one, and say a prayer for those serving now!

  It’s difficult

to put all our feelings into their categorical boxes. Sometimes they don’t fit and it overflows. When it overflows, it can happen at the most un-opportune moment. At the grocery store, in the bank, when you are driving, or at work! These are times when we do a lot of self talk like, “Why can’t I get it together? Not here, not here! I should be over this by now!”

Like a death, a divorce, or any other kind of loss, losing your home and all your worldly possessions will take each person a different amount of grieving time. And the grieving will be very unique to each person feeling the loss. Bottom line is, there is no right or wrong way folks. Start by being gentle with yourself and get through it one day at a time.

Knowing you are not dealing with this alone is crucial! There were literally thousands of people that this Valley Fire effected. If you feel like you need the camaraderie of others in pain, my friend just informed me of a “Rebuilding Resilience Event.” It is happening this Saturday, May 14th at the Middletown High School. From what I understand, it’s to help all those who are struggling with the aftermath of the fire and it’s FREE! They will have workshops to help folks deal with their problems and I hear it’s from 10-3. Maybe contact the high school for more information, but it sounds like a good place to start!

So many of the people I talk to keep saying how they know they should feel grateful to just be alive. But somebody needs to say too, that if some days you are just pissed off, then that is ok too! It’s part of the process and you are human! Eventually, there will be fewer days that you are pissed and more and more days of gratitude.

I was having a conversation with someone who brought up an idea that I thought of many times and then dismissed it again, thinking it was impossible in today’s day and age. But here’s the thought:

Remember back in the day, (and by back in the day, I mean watching old westerns and anything Amish), they use to hold “barn raising parties?” Why isn’t that something that could work in a time like this? I mean, our community is chalk FULL of contractors, engineers, heavy equipment operators, draftsmen, plan check peeps……WHY couldn’t something like that be organized? Why have we strayed so far from working for and with our neighbors that it couldn’t be done? Someone could form a committee and get a group of folks to start it up, have property owners sign up to do it, and each one helps the other.

Yea, yea, I know. That’s a pipe dream. But I still think there is something there that could be looked into. We’ve come so far already, with the shelters, supplies, donations, clean up, PG&E lines, cable and phone lines, ………now it’s time to rebuild, if folks want to, and WHY NOT some form of a barn raising, (home raising), group? Hmmmmm just food for thought.

Next blog: The book is getting a TITLE! You will hear the final decision on the book title and steps for moving forward with it.

Sneak peaks into the first chapter coming soon, and later, info from an interview I did with an emergency personnel. Hope the rest of your week is easy on you.