Neighbors Helping Neighbors

That is the theme that is taking place after the killer tornadoes Friday morning...."neighbors helping neighbors." It is so refreshing to see how many good people there are in this world. One area that was hit really hard was The Villages. It's mainly a retirement community...a very nice retirement community...the Disney World of retirement communities. They have something called An Ambassador Club in which people make their homes available to others in need. It has really come in handy after the devastation. In fact, they have more homes available than people in need. That's pretty nice.

There are of course a lot of sad stories being reported also. In one instance, a mother, her daughter & granddaughter all died. A father trying to protect his 7-yr old son...they both passed away. So far a total of 20 people died. I thought for sure it would be higher, I don't know how some of these people survived. Their homes are literally gone & yet, they are not only alive, but uninjured. God really does work in mysterious ways. Then you have those that are posing as a helpful, kind citizens only to find out they are crooks & stealing what they can. How can anyone do that? Seriously, how sick is your mind that you can steal from someone that just went through this horrible ordeal? They also showed some young men that were hovering around the home where the mother, daughter & granddaughter passed away...because they wanted to steal stuff. Their replies..."well they're gone, they won't need it." Ugh, sickening. I don't even want to try to understand that thought process. I can only hope that one day they get what's coming to them.

I commend newly appointed Gov. Crist for doing an excellent job. He just took over the role of Gov. but I think if anyone had doubts about him before, they don't anymore. He has been totally hands on & getting people what they need as well as FEMA & all that they are doing.

One thing that I don't agree with is people that say it's the govt's fault this happened or it's the govt's fault that we didn't have a better warning system in place. I suppose if I was where they are right now...I'd be questioning why & looking to blame someone also. Since I'm an outsider to their pain, I have a different viewpoint. It was a natural disaster. The weather forecasters had been warning us since 1 pm that afternoon that there were tornado watches & warnings. It's not uncommon to have a tornado watch...most of the time nothing happens. Sorta like hurricanes. They want tornado alarms/sirens some such device installed, but I don't think it's a good idea. I think there would be a lot of false alarms & before you know it, no one would pay any attention to the alarm. For $25 you can get a weather radio that will signal..but the thing is, it would have been going off all evening because those tornado watches remained in effect all night long. The weather forecasters were on tv all night long. I guess that should have been a real clue now that I look back - since when to weather forecasters stay on the air all night long for a tornado watch? But what are you going to do, stay up the entire night "just in case." No. Besides, even with the warning - would it have made much of a difference? I am of the belief that when it's your time to go to heaven, then it's your time - there's no escaping it.

They say it was 3 tornadoes that spanned over 70 miles from beginning to end. It started near the west coast & made it all the way over to the east coast & took out everything in it's path practically. Florida has never seen anything like that. Heck, I doubt most of the US has ever seen tornadoes going for that long of a distance. I am surprised that no one has any video footage of it. I thought it would definitely surface. They say the winds were estimated at 150 to 165 mph. No wonder those homes & businesses were torn apart instantly.

Tonight my Chicago Bears lost the Superbowl to the Indianapolis Colts. Oh well, at least they made it that far. Maybe next year will be a better year. It was an entertaining game, that's all I can ask for.

Time to get back to work tomorrow night. I'm hoping to put in a lot of shifts, but as usual, I'll take it day by day. Have a good week everyone!