Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 15, 1994 TAG: 9402160011
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Oh, stick a sock in it, Shakespeare. Discontent doesn't begin to describe the disgust and distress, the disheartenment and distemper brought on by this bummer of a winter. The dreariness of the last few days, on top of past irritations, confirm Mother Nature's essential disregard for our concerns and conveniences.
More ice, snow, sleet, freezing rain, hazardous driving, hazardous walking - as if we hadn't had a treacherous enough winter already. This time it combined with crashing trees and limbs littering streets and yards and bringing down miles of utility lines across Virginia. Thousands of homes - 200,000 at one point - were without heat, without light. Many were without water or telephone service. Many were running out of food. Many had to throw away freezers-full of food gone bad. Folks hovered for a little warmth around kerosene heaters or fireplaces and negotiated room to room by candlelight - or flashlight, for those organized enough to have fresh batteries.
Many, especially those living alone or in remote rural areas, suffered isolation and loneliness. Almost everybody has had to put up with inconvenience and unrelenting b-o-r-e-d-o-m. Countdown: 12 hours. 24 hours. 36 hours. 48 hours. Some still counting as the power outage/outrage continues.
The winter of our disconnect.
But not in all respects, not for everyone. In many cases, in some wonderful ways, the misery of this latest brutal ice storm caused people to re-connect.
One reason that telephone service failed in some parts of Virginia was that lines got overloaded with concern and commiseration. Friends in Hampton Roads called to check on the well-being of friends in far Southwest Virginia. Family members got together long distance. Co-workers called colleagues. Neighbors called neighbors. And, of course, we all called Apco.
Sure, some succumbed to funks. (Someone even complained that Apco workers were taking a meal break or napping in their trucks. Who cares if they'd worked 38 hours straight!)
Even so, these storms have a way of bringing out a sense of community, no matter where the neighborhood. In the Lakewood Colony section of Roanoke, for instance, power was restored to one side of a street 30 hours before it was restored to the other. On Saturday morning, John and Peggy Templeton and their three children rounded up every powerless neighbor they could find and, for nearly three hours, dished up hot coffee, pancakes, sausage, bacon and eggs to fuel the spirits of those who'd spent the night in the cold and dark.
The Templetons used their four-wheel drive to make grocery runs for those whose vehicles were still ice-bound, spent much of Saturday's daylight hours helping dig out their neighbors' cars - then invited everybody back to their home for a spaghetti dinner that evening. Misery loves company, and makes for a pretty good party.
The Templetons weren't the ice storm's only heroes, of course. Throughout the city and region, hundreds of folks went out of their way to help others, to be especially solicitous of the elderly and isolated, to generously share the warmth of their homes and their caring.
Maybe in an era when people are afraid to leave home without locking up, move so often they never get to know neighbors' names, and generally display an attitude of "I've got mine so to hell with you," an occasional debilitating ice storm to stop us in our tracks and make us see the light isn't an all-bad thing.
We human beings need each other; always have. It shouldn't take the weather to remind us that, without the kindness of friends and strangers - kindness received and bestowed - we are powerless.
In fact, it shouldn't take another ice storm. We've had enough for one winter, thank you.
by CNB