Trending
Residents of our area frequently go out of their way to thank our first responders -- the men and women who work hard and stand ready to make enormous sacrifices to keep us safe.
That is appropriate. Firefighters, emergency medical personnel, law enforcement officers and also linemen for the power company earn our gratitude every day.
That's never been more clear than in the past few days. A large swath of Wheeling and also parts of the riverfront in Belmont County were devastated by what meteorologists at American Electric Power termed a "double derecho" -- straight-line high winds that came back to back early Tuesday morning and left nearly 60% of Ohio County without power.
Since then, our area's first responders have worked around the clock to restore power. As of Friday afternoon, still more than 2,000 of our friends and neighbors in Ohio County were without power. We hope that changes soon.
It's easy to get angry and frustrated when your power doesn't come back on while your neighbor's does. We all understand that. However, there's not a magical switch that can be flipped to restore power -- oftentimes, our first responders are going road by road, tracing line by line, to find out where the problem exists. And then they have to contact AEP to get a crew out for repairs.
Recall, on Tuesday morning there were more than 15,000 people without power in Ohio County. Downtown was dark, leading businesses to close for the day as most of the city's commerce ground to a halt.
Much progress has been made since then as linemen have been removing trees from power lines, repairing broken power poles and lines and more to ensure the lights get turned back on to our community.
Day in and day out, our first responders prove their dedication -- and earn our gratitude.
It's not easy work, and oftentimes doesn't garner the praise it deserves. But today, we say "Thank you" for working to bring life back to normal.