Hurricane IVAN...The Aftermath

Well, western North Carolina has now experienced 2 Hundred Year floods in a span of only 10 days!! The Pigeon River here in Canton rose higher than it did when Frances came through. We had about 15 inches of water standing in our root cellar. Downtown Canton was devastated again. Geof's pediatrician's office was destroyed by Frances and the work that had begun to fix it was destroyed during Ivan. Luckily we live on a hill so the only trouble we had was with the root cellar. A lot of folks lost everything. It's really depressing. The mill in town has shut down. It is Haywood county's largest employer and it may never open again, thus ruining the local economy. The other day I saw a crib mattress lying beside the road where the river had left it. That really struck cord with me. I wanted to cry and I prayed that the child to whom the mattress belonged was safe and warm. There's a weird vibe around here now. It feels as if our lives have come to a screeching halt while the rest of the world carries on obliviously. By "our lives" I mean the lives of the people in this town. I'm lucky I can carry on with my life with only minor disruptions such as: downtown Canton is still off limits, we had to boil our water before using it for a couple days, Geof's pediatrician's office being destroyed. All just minor annoyances, but I still feel for the folks who were left with nothing. They are always in my thoughts.