There is an old fable that tells the story of a good, God-fearing farmer who lives in a town near the mighty Mississippi River. One spring sees the greatest flood in 1000 years and, as the Mississippi River overflows its banks, the local officials order the town evacuated, yet the farmer refuses to go.
As the water creeps toward the farmer’s house, he declines a ride to safety in a jeep. As the water laps at the eaves of his porch, the farmer, sitting on his roof, declines a ride to safety in a boat. As water covers his house and the farmer sits on his chimney, he declines a rope ladder lowered from the helicopter.
His answer to all who come to save him is the same. “I have been a good, God-fearing man all of my life and the Good Lord will not let me come to harm.”
Well, the river rises and the farmer drowns and he goes to his eternal reward. Once in heaven he encounters God and entreats Him saying, “God, I was your good and faithful servant all of my life. How could you let that happen to me?’
The Lord looks at the farmer in surprise and, with just a trace of pity, says, “Well, what did you want? I sent you a jeep, a boat and a helicopter.”
The story of the farmer and the flood comes to mind this week as we shake off an ice storm that recalled the harrowing days immediately after the Great Ice Storm of 1998, itself a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Beginning Monday, The Lincoln County News has fielded a few phone calls, not many but a few, from area residents who were in one way or another dissatisfied with the response of local emergency volunteers.
Some felt they were not checked upon often enough, or early enough by First Responders, who by the way, in this county, are almost all volunteers. Someone complained that the power did not come back on until Monday morning. Another complained that the food in a local shelter left something to be desired.
We have fielded those complaints and we are sympathetic to them.
However, as Lincoln County EMA director Tim Pellerin might say, this was a significant weather event. At its height, 12,800 people in Lincoln County were without power and more than 700 volunteers were in the field helping us, the collective community.
Electricity did not come to some of the outer areas of the community until it was extended under President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program in the 1930s, yet in these few generations since, we collectively seem to have forgotten that generations before us got along quite well without it.
In a situation like this previous weekend, missing a favorite TV program should be the least of our concerns.
Like the farmer in the fable, it is up to us to save ourselves. We can’t rely on a helping hand to help us the way we’d like it, when we’d like it. The emergency response business is not a restaurant where we get to order our preference and send back what we don’t like.
Have a plan. Stash some candles, some batteries: a couple extra blankets. Have a place to be, or a place to go: someone to check on, or someone to check on you.
Instead of relying on someone else for help, plan to be that person that someone else can rely on. That way, the next time first responders come your aid, the best thing you can do, for yourself, for them and for those who truly need the help, is to say thank you, don’t worry about me. I’ll be just fine until the lights come on.
