Q-C forecast: Widespread compassion

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By The Quad-City Times | Thursday, July 24, 2008 |

If the wind and thunder didn’t wake you, the next sound certainly did. A buzzing army of chainsaws cut through the silence of a Monday morning unlike anything our community has ever experienced.

Neighbors emerged from darkened homes to begin clearing tree debris from streets. Others moved vehicles in front of downed power lines to keep people away until emergency workers arrived.

Others brought food and comfort. The owners of the Bettendorf Dairy Queen raced to give away treats before they melted. Rock Island’s 18th Avenue Hy-vee launched a parking lot cookout to feed powerless neighbors from the surrounding neighborhood.

The storm that snapped power poles and oaks didn’t appear to even bend the will of Quad-Citians. In fact, it made it stronger. People ventured out to check on the welfare of neighbors and strangers. Some folks awoke to find people already at work in their own yards.

The mess of power lines and limbs created traffic snarls along streets left without working traffic signals. Instead of chaos, patient Quad-City drivers created a slow, orderly procession by taking turns at intersections. Even the busy Avenue of the Cities intersection with Interstate 74 proceeded smoothly.

Our community has had its share of power lines snapped by wind, ice and snow. Those outages typically are more isolated. This storm knocked out

123,780 Quad-City utility customers, including most of Rock Island and Moline.

This outpouring of compassion should not be surprising in a community. We relied on it barely a month ago during the floods when thousands who don’t live in a floodplain voluntarily filled sandbags to protect those who do.

It’s the same spirit our community relies on daily in our schools, churches and neighborhoods. And we’ll need it in the coming weeks. The extensive damage means many of our Quad-City neighbors will be without power, perhaps for three or four days.

You’d think a storm of this magnitude might exhaust all the compassion remaining in the Quad-Cities. Fortunately, compassion doesn’t work that way.

Just the opposite, in fact.