ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 10, 1996 TAG: 9601100122
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
BE IT ever so humble, there's no place like home when a near-blizzard is raging. Most of us were more than happy to stay inside our homes Saturday night and Sunday - Monday, too, if we could - watching the snow pile up from behind our windows.
If we ventured out, to make a snowman with our children or to trudge to a neighbor's house or a nearby grocery store, it was usually by choice rather than necessity.
Not all, though, could enjoy the luxury of staying in, or of getting out in the storm just for fun and for only as briefly as they wished. Many people, responding to duty, ventured into the thick of it to provide essential services that we sometimes take for granted and assume always will be there.
The list of such people is long: There are those who were out plowing roads, attempting to keep them at least clear enough for emergency vehicles to get through, and the police, firefighters and rescue crews who were on the job to respond to emergencies: fire, accidents, illness, power outages.
Many hospital employees didn't have the option of staying home and cozily snowbound. Neither, for that matter, did those radio and TV personnel who provided the homebound with updates on the storm, nor the news reporters and circulation folks who struggled to make at least some newspaper deliveries.
The trouble with compiling lists like this is that it's so easy to inadvertently omit many who should be cited. So let's mention the dozens of owners of private four-wheel drives who put themselves and their vehicles at the disposal of emergency-services dispatchers.
And let's include the owners of neighborhood and convenience stores who opened so essential supplies would be available for nearby residents.
Nor let us forget the many good people in this area and across the state who kept shelters up and running, with heat, food and other comforts, for the homeless and for travelers temporarily stranded far from their homes.
By midweek, Southwest Virginia is digging out, beginning to resume normal life. Thanks are due those who, while most folks hunkered down, were out working to restore and maintain the necessities as best they could.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB