Hurricanes, fires have been devastating to United States

Hurricanes and fires have been devastating to the United States

Even though the smoke seems to have cleared in the Cheney area, the damage is far from over after this disastrous summer of natural disasters.

The headlines these days seem to be mainly about the hurricanes now plaguing the East Coast after already having significant damage to Houston, Texas caused by Hurricane Harvey. Some people have been in an uproar because the fires in Montana and numerous other states are not more talked about nationally than the hurricanes.

I understand being upset about the fires not being talked about more, but at this point does it really matter? Everyone seems to be hurting in the country and going against each other because of something not being talked about more in the news sounds ridiculous if you think about what is really happening.

There are people in Montana and the places affected by the hurricanes without houses, so in the end it should just matter about them receiving help from the rest of us and not on who has more news coverage.

The part I have been trying to focus on during the time of devastation is the people who have come out and done amazing things for their community.

One person who comes to mind is Houston Texans player J.J. Watt. He started a campaign to raise money for Houston with a goal of $250,000. The funds have exceeded far beyond that as he currently has raised $31 million.

Another thing that comes to mind was a picture going around on social media of people backing up the freeways due to towing boats to Houston to help with the people affected from Harvey. Now that is the news I like to see from this time of despair.

The other people who deserve endless recognition are the firefighters who have been risking their lives day in and day out to help put out these fires throughout California, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Those firefighters not only put their lives at stake, but they spend time away from their families and make huge sacrifices to help their community.

So even though there is obviously a lot of negative going on with the disasters around us, there are some positives emerging, and I think that is what we need to focus on instead of focusing on which disaster makes the headlines more.

Seriously, how silly does that sound?

There has been undoable damage to many regions of our country this past summer, but we need to be thankful of the people that have been able to help the United States in this time of need.

And the scary part is that it is still not over. There are still fires burning in Montana and there are still hurricanes looming on the East Coast. We need to keep the people affected in our thoughts and hope that the worst has already passed us.

I am personally thankful for everyone who has helped anybody in a positive way in this dangerous time of summer. I hope that we can somehow move forward, learn some lessons and grow stronger as a country in this time of need.

Grace Pohl can be reached at grace@cheneyfreepress.com.