“Dave checking on you and your family. Are you all ok?”
??Hurricane Helene
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Look in the comments of this post for two specific ways that you can help us help in our community relief efforts
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Thank you for all the messages!! If I didn’t reply, it’s probably because the message wasn’t received while we were offline.
Yes, we are ok!
Many here are not though.
The screenshot of the storm over Greenville was minutes before we lost power on Friday morning, as the very worst part of the storm started making its entire length up through Greenville, and then toward Asheville.
Over the past few days, I’ve seen some of the worst selfishness in people, and I’ve seen most of the humble selflessness in people.
SELFISH - I’ve seen cars parked at the very end of the line at gas stations send one person out with gas jugs to cut the line - sometimes walking in front of 25-30 cars - and walk up to the tanks, taking their wrongful place at the front of the line, and start filling up containers.
SELFLESS - I’ve seen firefighters and neighbors with chainsaws cutting trees out of the middle of the road to make the roads drivable.
SELFLESS - I’ve seen neighbors using their own fuel and heavy machinery to move brush out of the roads.
SELFLESS - I’ve seen lineman work tirelessly to get poles put back up so we can get power back on as soon as possible.
SELFLESS - I’ve seen people literally use their own credit card to pay for someone else’s gas because some credit transactions get declined at the gas stations.
SELFLESS - one of my friends, the owner of my country club and the best restaurant in my town, literally set up their Core 450 food truck, and has providing meals free of charge for the community.
The Reality
Hurricane Helene came through and knocked out our power. We have no WiFi, and we have terrible cell coverage (like 1 bar).
In all of The Upstate (our region of SC) there are fallen trees lying on top of powerlines.
Power is expected to be out still for many days.
So many homes, vehicles and properties were damaged.
Thankfully, our family is safe, and we have everything that we need.
No damage to anything of ours.
We have a generator so we are able to power our refrigerator and get charge on our devices.
As stores closer to downtown are starting to open up, I was able to get to a Verizon store and get Verizon Internet Gateway (essentially WiFi that connects to satellites), so we are now back online.
I believe in a sense we were blessed SO THAT we can bless others.
Now is the time for everybody to lean in.
HOW YOU CAN HELP (continued in the comments)
