No longer taking electricity for granted

You walk into a room, flip the switch, and the room is instantly bathed in light.

You turn on the faucet, maybe wait 10 seconds of so, and soon the hot water warms your skin.

You pull into the driveway, push the button by the visor, and like magic, the garage door goes up.

You’re a little chilly, so you go to the thermostat in the hallway, and nudge it up a couple of degrees. You hear the furnace kick on, and not long after, the room begins to warm.

You want to check in with a friend, so you pick up the phone and dial the number. Or better yet, flip open the cell phone, and scroll down to the name you’re looking for.

These are all incredibly simple, everyday tasks. They’re the things we do every day of our lives, rarely stopping to consider what life would be like without them.

But in the past week, area residents have learned just exactly what it is like to live without such conveniences, after a devastating ice storm swept across the region, leaving thousands of homes without electricity.

It hasn’t been fun. For anyone. Homes were left dark and cold. Businesses were silenced. Local residents were left scrambling for ways to stay warm and stay fed.

I’ll never forget my pre-dawn drive to work last Wednesday morning, through the deathly dark streets of Blytheville. Nor will I forget the scene that appeared as the sun came up — block after block of storm-ravaged streets, a hellish tundra of frozen trees, downed limbs and blocked roads.


We should give thanks that the situation has improved in the past week. The army of utility workers that has descended upon our community has restored power to many. Key service providers, such as the hospital, city hall and grocery stores, are up and running. Many lights have come back on.

But for as a dramatically better as the situation is today, compared to a week ago, it is dramatically horrible for those who still lack power. There are still thousands living as best they can in cold, dark homes, waiting in anticipation for the joyous moment when the electricity comes back on. But there’s no telling when that might be.

You can learn a lot about the character of community by how it reacts to adversity. And in the past week, Blytheville has proven its mettle. It would be impossible to recognize all the acts of heroism that have occurred in the past week, but a few can’t go without mentioning.

First, there’s the utility crews which have worked absurdly long hours — and continue to do so — to bring power back to the community. Those crews include hundreds who have come from several different states to lend a hand.

Then, there’s the American Red Cross. The local chapter had already sprung into action by Wednesday morning, and within hours of the ice storm, was establishing shelters across the country. If you’re looking for a way to help others, consider a donation to our local chapter. Call 763-4481 for more.

And, of course, there are the fine employees of the city of Blytheville. From the police officers striving to keep the streets safe under blackout conditions; to the firefighters taking on a new wave of power-outage related threats; to the public works crews, clearing our city streets; there are plenty of folks who deserve our thanks.

On a purely personal level, I would like to give a shout out to the employees of the Blytheville Courier News. It’s not easy to publish a newspaper when you don’t have any power. But I will forever remember the way the people in this building pulled together to provide our readers with information in the wake of the worst natural disaster to strike our area in recent memory.

As difficult as the last week has been, and despite the challenges that still lie ahead, we have reasons to be grateful. In time, our community will recover. The power will return. The lights will come back on. Even the trees we have lost can be regrown. The destruction wrought to Blytheville by the ice storm is nothing compared to communities that have been ravaged by things like tornadoes, floods and earthquakes.

It won’t be long before we’re all able to get back to our everyday lives — when we can illuminate a room with the flip of a switch, warm our homes against the cold winter wind, and take a hot bath whenever we feel like it. Soon, life will get back to normal.

And one thing’s for sure: Normal never looked so beautiful.