Saturday, October 13, 2018

Sustainable Saturday - Recovery From the Flood

Before I begin, I want to turn my attention to all those on the panhandle of Florida (and those elsewhere) who suffered from Hurricane Michael.  It happens that this storm became a little personal to a good friend of mine.  Her sister lived and still has a house in, and her son (who is a first responder) and his family still live, in a suburb of Panama City, Florida. 

While trying to help others, her sister's son will also have to deal with the extensive damage caused to his house.  His family was lucky to get out alive after trees fell on their house.  I've seen aerial photos of both houses and the devastation is every bit as bad as what many of us have seen on television.

I fear this weather (which impacted so many in Puerto Rico last year, as another example, and those on the island still haven't recovered - and the true death toll may never be known) is our new normal.

Our area of upstate New York, meantime, has had an exceptionally wet summer.  Flash floods have hit our area several times.  My son lived in walking distance of one of the floods (although not impacted directly) and a business near where he lived closed for a time.

Yesterday, thanks to much hard work by the community, this store, beloved by so many, reopened.

It is called Country Wagon Produce and we have shopped there (from time to time) for many years.
The view from the parking lot today
We shopped there today, and it was crowded with people happy that they came back.  The businessowners weren't sure they were ever going to reopen.  It could have been tragic.

Their fall crops were destroyed in the flood, and water even entered the store itself.  Their pumpkins were gone.  Their winter squash.  Their corn stalks.   You can see that at the link at the beginning of this paragraph - the Howard Manges twitter post.

But, with a lot of hard work, they are back in business.

And hopefully, I'll be making these Northern Spy apples (well, not all of them) into an apple crisp soon.  It was my small way of supporting a local business.

Yes, gratitude is in order.  But we, as a people, must give serious thought about how we will deal with our new normal.  Because rebuilding over and over from destruction can't be sustained.

Day 13 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #blogboost

7 comments:

  1. But ... but ...but...climate change is a hoax.

    We’ve been taking quite a beating from that “hoax”.

    Glad to see the store perseveres . I’m sure your apple crisp will be wonderful

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is sad to see how seriously our weather is changing. And it's only getting worse each year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Things seem to be changing a lot, and not for the better. But let us take joy and comfort, for a moment, in those gorgeous, gorgeous apples. Bet your apple crisp will be delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's so heartening to see a community rally around. I love stores like Country Wagon Produce. I pray they never have to worry about rebuilding again!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yup, we're going to have to figure out how to mitigate the changes in our climate have brought. Sad that we didn't do anything about this before.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hope that you have a good time making your apple crisp with those northern spy apples. Here in Western New York, I have quite a plethora of apples. I made applesauce a few days ago and plan on making more soon. Also, I'm really happy that the folks in Florida were so supportive of each other and that store.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The concept that Rome burned while Nero Fiddled is beginning to explainh the US government and climate change

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting! Your comments mean a lot to me. Due to a temporary situation, your comments may not post for a day or more-I appreciate your patience.I reserve the right to delete comments if they express hate or profanity, are spam, or contain content not suitable to a family blog.