Bouncing Around from Time to Time

     Most stories and novels that I read start from the beginning and take you to an ending, however my mind does not work that way and I was always partial to the old COLUMBO shows that showed you the murder first and then Lt. Columbo came in figured it out.  So I apologize to those of you that think in the normal frame of mind but my blogs will more of a Columbo style, as things pop into my mind I will write them down.  Also since my mind is not nearly as sharp as it use to be, I will do better writing down more recent events before they become a distant memory.
     It is funny how current events in ones daily life can trigger memories of the past.  As many of you know we are expecting a hurricane to hit near or around the Alabama area sometime in the next few days - I believe it is called Issac and who cares what they called, it is still a storm, but it brings to mind a few years back - almost 17 - another hurricane that came through - this one was called Opal and it hit us pretty hard.  There have been many before and since but this one in particular sticks in my mind for several reasons and shall be the subject of my blog tonight.
     You know as time goes by you tend to block out certain memories or they just fade with time and while it is true that I cannot remember every single detail of that particular night and the following days there are certain aspects that will be forever etched into my mind.  I do know that my wife and I had only been married for a year or so and that I was working the night shift at the Lee County Sheriff's Office.  The storm was slated to hit sometime during the night and I can remember the thought that here I was, newly married and I had to go off and leave my new family at home alone so that I could help the citizens of Lee County because that was my job and my calling.  Every law-enforcement officer faces this same dilemma every time they go to work, their family is home alone while their loved one is out helping others, boy you talk about sacrifice!



     I don't remember leaving the house or when the storm actually hit Lee County, as I said it is only brief glimpses of the past but I do remember being scared to death that my family was at home alone and I was out in the storm.  Those of us that were working that night spent most of the night running from call to call, down power lines, trees down across the roads, roads being flooded, medical assist calls, it was constant the whole night and it seemed that it was never going to end.  My most memorable event of that night was getting stuck between two down trees.  I couldn't go forward and I couldn't go in reverse - I literally had a 50 foot area that I was in that was untouched by fallen trees and we aren't talking little pine trees either, these were monsters that had fallen across the road, a few seconds either way and one of them would have come down across my car.  So here I was, out on the west end of the county and I couldn't do anything, except watch the sky and hope I could dodge the next tree to fall.
     Now the rural area of Lee County is served by volunteer fire departments and without their help this county would not survive.  This is a group of dedicated men and women that volunteer their time and sometime their own money to serve those in the areas that they live.  This particular area was served the Southwest Volunteer Fire Department and they were my saviors that night.  I can't tell you how long it took for them to get there, they probably had to literally saw their way through but they did come and boy was I glad to see them!!!  Within a few minutes they had me free - so to speak, you still couldn't travel very far without running into another down tree but at least I was mobile again.  The rest of the night passed without much more stress EXCEPT I didn't know how I was going to get home when I got off!!  Every road was blocked, of course I had spent most of the night out in the county and had no idea how the cities has fared but as I was soon to find out - it was the same. 
     We were told to be ready to work over, depending on how the long the storm stayed around.  Fortunately by the end of the night and as the sun began to come up Hurricane Opal had moved on to mess with another place.  This still left me not knowing how I was going to make it home but I knew one thing, I was either going to walk or drive because I was going home.  I remember leaving the office and picking my way through and around down trees, my mind racing - not knowing how my family was (this was before cell phones), how had the house fared and what lay in store for me when I finally did get there.  My first real memory of pulling up to the house was seeing a beautiful red maple we had in the front yard laying on its side having been completely pulled out of the ground but amazingly that was the worst damage I could see.  Of course there were trees down every where, power lines, cable lines and telephone lines hanging in big clumps every where but amazingly the house was still in one piece.  I remember walking inside and holding my wife for the longest time, just thankful to be back home and everyone was OK.
     We both relayed our events of the night - how she had held the kids throughout the night and had ridden out the storm inside a closet.  The next few days were spent trying to clean up the neighborhood, chain saws were running constantly and slowly but slowly life began to get back to normal.  We were without power for almost a week but we found ways to stay occupied - remember this was 17 years ago, my son just turned 16!! 
     I hope you have enjoyed my wander off into a current event that brings back some memories of simpler times.  I hope everyone is safe during the next few days as we await to see what Issac is going to do.  Keep in mind this one thing - while you are at home with your families there are brave men and women out there among you keeping you safe and putting their life on the line during these times of disaster.

Jack (Tommy) Carter
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