Our view: County residents come to the aid of others
Published 5:00 am Wednesday, August 17, 2022
A meal site was set up.
A Joseph company sent sheets of plywood to residents and businesses.
Construction workers busy with a state contract project stopped and helped out residents.
Those were the types of actions seen across Wallowa County last week in the wake of a once-in-a-generation hailstorm that triggered damage seemingly everywhere.
Those efforts — and the work of so many others who stepped up to help — illustrate the kind of grit and determination that have always been a hallmark of Wallowa County.
Every one of the businesses and every one of the individuals who as a group or individually decided to lend a hand deserve a great deal of praises.
As a nation and a state, we often find ourselves locked into heated political disagreements. Sometimes we don’t see eye to eye on issues. Often we are vehement in our support for our own cause. From a distance, it could be seen that we, as a nation, state or region have more to argue about than we do to agree with.
Yet when disaster strikes, when, so to speak, the chips are down, we see individual efforts like those that were — and continue to be — so common in Wallowa County.
No one can control the weather and certainly no one expected the kind of storm that lashed the county last week. Life is unpredictable as is the weather. Yet one thing we can count on and can predict with a high degree of certainty is when tragedy arrives there are going to be people on the farms and ranches and in the towns across our region who will seek to help, rather than hinder. People who will follow the better angels of their nature and come to the rescue.
That kind of assistance can be rare but, at least in Eastern Oregon, it is not. The people of Wallowa County not only showed their true nature in terms of helping their neighbor, but also demonstrated the kind of resiliency that is uncommon in many places. Rather than complaining or giving up, people jumped into debris and decided to make a difference.
The entire county should be proud of its residents and businesses, and remember that while we may disagree sometimes, when it comes to a disaster we are going to step up and help out.