Healthcare Wordsmith

Last week, we had high winds.

Bent Closer

So high they ripped the screen door out of my hands, banging it against the house.  The screen door closers were bent, needing replaced, and a porch light was damaged but repairable.  I had papers blown from elsewhere to pick up after the winds died down.  All of which added up to only minor damage.

My neighbors’ shed didn’t fare so well.

A pile of metal sheets used to be their outdoor storage shed.  The wind knocked it off its foundation, and the shed rolled across their yard and the lot next to it. It finally stopped next to the road at near the far edge of the lot. By the next day, it was flat, a pile of scrap metal. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Undamaged Installed Closer

It reminded me of the damage I saw and heard about from Hurricane Agnes in the 1970s in Pennsylvania.  After a week of heavy rains from another storm system, Hurricane Agnes came up the Eastern Seaboard, and dumped several more days of gentle steady rain over central and eastern Pennsylvania.

The Scranton area was devastated.  A friend — even years later — couldn’t describe the scene he and his wife saw when they drove to the area from out of state.  Communications to the area were down, and I believe they were in shock at the flooding.

Many towns and cities along rivers were hit hard.  Another friend worked to help clean up some of the beautiful houses along Front Street in Harrisburg.  After mud from the Susquehanna River flooding the first floors to — or nearly to — the second, it was a mess.

After the flooding subsided, I remember traveling along the Juniata River, and seeing grown trees bent from the water.  Not broken, just bent. The flattened shed in my neighborhood is eerily reminiscent of a twisted, broken steel bridge in the middle of a small creek I remember.

And after yesterday’s airplane crash in the Hudson River, with all passengers and crew rescued, it’s time to give thanks. I’m sure they, their families, their rescuers and all involved even peripherally are.

So today, even though it’s not officially Thanksgiving Day … or a even special occasion … I’m thankful. Some things won’t wait for a once a year holiday.