Dear Mother Nature: Why us?

Why us? We are good, strong God-loving people here in the Town of Warwick. We are people who are made up of all races and ethnicities. We are a proud strong group of families who pull together in these tough times. You have flooded our farms, which are so blessed with our rich “Black Dirt.” You have ruined our crops. You have put an enormous, in some cases insurmountable financial burden, on our farmers who are the backbone of our community. You have flooded our downtowns and merchants stores, restaurants and shops. Many of these people are our neighbors and friends some who will never recover. Our homeowners and families lost so much and were so busy working and trying to save from the ruins what they could that what little time and funds they had did not have time to support our merchants who lost so much. Our most valuable asset, our children who did not understand what was happening or why, suffer by watching the toll the stress was doing to their parents. Our superb emergency services police,fire and EMS squads many who work and had their own problems to deal with at home and many of which are volunteers worked tirelessly through the many nights to protect our people and property. Our local government officials, DPW and highway departments raced against time day and night to limit the damage and protect life and limb. How much could we take? You then felt the need to test us again with unprecedented second round of flooding. The impact once again was devastating. Yet once again our communities in the town pulled together and survived. The economic impact at a time when cuts and layoffs at all levels of government are the norm. How tough a people are we, you said as the calendar turned to late October. Once again you said: Once again I will test the strength and will of the people of the Town Of Warwick. Trick or treat was almost here when out of nowhere you dumped a massive dose of heavy wet snow on us which snapped trees and tree limbs like toothpicks and came crashing down on tree limbs destroying power lines ,cable and Internet lines,phone lines and even cell phone towers. Imagine no electricity, no heat as temperatures plummeted, no phones, no cell-phones and no television or Internet. Cut off from communicating with the outside world and so were the emergency personnel. Once again we in Warwick are put to the test. Our resourceful saviors put together a makeshift form of relay system to ensure we were protected and answered all the emergency calls in order of priority possibly thousands until all was back to order. For 24/7 they struggled through treacherous call after call and for them we are so thankful. Mother Nature could not break the strength and resolve of the people of Warwick even after this third devastating blow. We are a strong family and are a resourceful bunch of folk. So next time you see a member of EMS, police fire or local official, the guy on the plow, the guy who works cutting up the trees and removing them from cars,houses and roadways walk up to them,shake their hands and say, Thank You. If you have a few bucks left in this economy send a donation to any of these fine volunteer organizations, participate in their fund raisers. If you have some time volunteer. If you worship, say a prayer for the safety of the men and women who risk their lives on a daily basis to keep us safe. Take your best shot, Mother Nature. Warwick will survive. God bless us all. Joel Cohen Warwick