CARLTON FLETCHER: Despite storms’ wrath, we must keep living

Time keeps flowing like a river to the sea.

— Alan Parsons Project

I got this query the other day: “(A local TV station) is reporting on virtually nothing but storm-related items, and you guys have had stories about government meetings, coon dog hunts, school system politics, hospital meetings, murders and things like that over the last several days. What gives … don’t you guys care about the storm victims?”

I hung up the phone.

When all but two members of your staff are storm victims themselves, it goes without saying that we care about storm victims. Deeply. And we will continue to do everything we can to provide necessary information during the recovery phase of the storms’ aftermath and tell some of the stories of courage and inspiration that the Jan. 2 and 22 storms that humbled our community birthed.

And I certainly would never deem myself qualified to tell any other news-gathering organization — especially one I know zero about other than they come on TV — what they should or shouldn’t cover.

But — and, please, know that I say this with a very clear understanding of and compassion for what storm victims are going through — at some point our community has to move on. We have to keep doing for our neighbors and the people who are reaching out for helping hands, but we also have to keep doing the things that make us a community.

Schools have to start back … city and county governments have to keep meeting and making decisions on how taxpayer money is spent … high school basketball teams have to play out their seasons … we have to support our coon hunts and sports teams and symphony orchestra and concerts and beauty pageants and arts events and plays and RiverQuarium and Civil Rights Institute and Chehaw park and Thronateeska and marathon and churches and fraternal organizations …

We have to keep living.

I know it’s easier to make that statement when your home is still intact. I also know some people I care for deeply are in a state of dire shock right now, wondering how they’re going to recover from the horrors that came in on the winds of those storms. And I know that the tragic deaths of the tornado victims have left deep scars on this community that no passage of time will ever erase.

I’m no psychiatrist or counselor, but I’d wager a tidy sum that more than half of the residents of this community are experiencing various levels of post-traumatic stress disorder in the wake of the weather events whose impact will no doubt carry on in our collective conscious for months and months to come. I’ve seen the same look on too many people’s faces — a kind of stunned disbelief and weariness — a look that speaks volumes about our mental and physical well-being.

I don’t apologize for this newspaper’s decision to use our staff to cover stories that have always mattered to the community before we were blindsided by this double shot of enduring trauma. Nor do I condemn any other fellow media outlet for the way it covers local news. As I told one lovely TV reporter during a recent conversation: “For us to consider this a ‘competition’ is ludicrous. You guys do what you do, and we do what we do. The important thing is all of us doing what we do as well as we can to tell our community’s story.”

Personally, I think part of that story — and part of our recovery — will come at a benefit concert featuring favorite sons Luke Bryan and Phillip Phillips … watching Dougherty and Monroe duke it out on the basketball court … following the ongoing consolidation efforts of the new Albany State University … … watching the Falcons play in the Super Bowl … listening to the sermons delivered by true men and women of faith … reading about Thomas Weber’s fascinating music blog.

As well as hearing the real stories of survival told by resilient storm victims who were the recipients of miracles and the amazing people who’ve put their own concerns aside to help them with recovery.

All of those things are part of what make this the community I love.

Contact Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ABH_Fletcher.