It is good to see that all of our city and county departments are working together to keep everyone safe during the bad weather over the last few days. Everyone from the Emergency Management Agency, road department, police, 911, power companies, and fire and rescue has put in a lot of hours to keep roads cleared, respond to calls and assist the public when they have an emergency.

There were numerous reports of trees and power lines being knocked down during the storm, which brought significant winds in excess of 35 to 45 mph Saturday night and Sunday morning. It might have been an inconvenience to get ready for church Sunday morning in the dark, but fortunately, most customers had their power back on by midday Sunday.

Crews from the County Road Department, along with help from police and fire departments, have put in overtime this weekend to help keep the roads cleared. As soon as they received a call, they got someone out there to clear the road just as soon as possible.

Another blessing is that we haven’t had any roads washed out – thanks to the slow, soaking nature of the rainfall and also to the upkeep work of the roads. Many roads this year were trimmed along the sides to help water drain off the road better. Not only should that help the roads not to wash out, but it should also help the roads to last longer.

Probably the best decision of yesterday was to close all schools. While it might have been possible to have school, it would have been very treacherous to have school buses out on the roads, especially if they were flooded or washed out.

Also, you don’t want a school bus to be hit by a tornado, and there was a possibility of tornadoes all during school hours yesterday. It’s better to make use of the school system’s inclement weather days than take a chance on someone getting hurt in a bus wreck due to roads or a tornado.

We appreciate everyone’s hard work during these rough couple of days.