The Good of the great Winter Storm

So, I'm convinced there's some good somewhere in this great big mess of icy, electric-less, cold wintry mix we've labeled "Winter Storm '09". Mainly, the good I see from this storm is the good it brings out in people. While I know stressful situations often bring out the worse in people, I've seen so many examples of true Heartland spirit and human kindness during this storm. Maybe it's because events like this force us to rely on others for a change.

For one, I've been the recipient of it. Whether it was lending me ice scrapers and de-icer to clean off my car, fellow co-corkers scraping my car for me, pushing it out of the parking lot, giving me rides, or friends coming at the drop of a hat to get my car out of a stuck parking lot (I seemed to have gotten stuck in the ice a lot) I've seen the goodness in people. When we have winter weather like this, it creates about 10 times more work than normal for me for the website. Numerous co-workers pitched in to help with web coverage with the live chat, pictures and video.

Then, there are our viewers. You make it worthwhile. While the demands for instant information sometimes seem insurmountable, many of you told us how you appreciated our coverage and efforts to keep you updated. That makes my three nights in a hotel room, four hours of sleep in two days, and three nights of pizza for dinner worth it. (I never thought I'd get tired of so much pizza.)

While thousands of you are still without power (my house included) we'll see more of this goodness emerge from the dark corners of ice and tree laden streets. How about you? What goodness have you seen from the great Winter Storm of '09?

On a side note, thanks to everyone that took the time to send in weather pictures. We literally probably received upwards to 1000 pictures. Because of this volume of response, it's been pretty much impossible for me to keep up with it. However, I'll try to wade through it some more and add to our slideshow tomorrow. Toodles!