We Have, We Can, We Will Again

By Reverend Paul N. Papas II

February 1, 2022

If you get your history or civics lessons from CNN you might think this is Fake News. This country is much more like its motto of “Out of many, one” then unable to accomplish anything together. There are pockets of exceptions, but generally over the past couple of years the media’s narrative of the citizen’s behavior has failed when it comes to accuracy.

In the 1770s our Forefathers of different backgrounds worked together to found our Christian nation out from under the largest, best trained, and best equipped army of its day.  Our Forefathers gave us a Constitutional Republic which has thwarted many attacks from within and without over time.

Some of the attacks have caused great anxiety and panic yet we came together and we got through them.

Many events have brought people together since our founding. Some of those uniting events were hurricanes, tornadoes, and blizzards.

Some of the things I experienced in the Blizzard of 78 prepared me for the Chelsea fire and later Katrina.

On February 6, 1978 I checked the weather before heading out for work and did not hear anything abnormal, certainly nothing about a blizzard. Normally there would be several warnings about a blizzard coming in a day or so. In 1978 there were no cell phones with weather alerts; we had radio, TV, and print newspapers. Don Kent was still a fixture in weather forecasting.

I was at my third stop of the day when I noticed an eerie feeling and eerie looking sky, something was not right. Only a few snow flakes had fallen, something was not right. I cut the day short and headed home. I only had two exits to go on the highway but the snow was coming down rather heavily by the time I arrived home.

We have come to realize that was the beginning of the Blizzard of ’78. The snow covered some first floor windows. Roads became impassable; cars were left in the middle of the streets or highways. Very few stores were open; the ones which were open ran out of items.  It was a wet heavy snow and the high winds produced its own damage and high drifts. Some children were told to keep their hands on the building as they walked outside their homes. Some people were later found on their walkway or stoop as they did not know how close they were to their own front door.  Neighbors helped each other the best they could.

At that time I was a member of the National Guard, which the governor called out. With full field gear I walked three towns over to the nearest armory, which is now closed. Someone did give me a ride part of the way there on a snowmobile.

One mission we had was to check the cars on the roads and highways for survivors. Some let their cars run with the windows closed and were overcome with their exhaust fumes.

We guarded a road on the coast, seen in the video below. On that road we hit a patch of gavel that bounced, we were walking the roof of a car. Thankfully the car was empty. There was one house, built on stilts, on that road which still had power and the residents were guarding the road from their porch.

In the same town, one of the residents had a working phone and invited us in to make a quick call to our families to let them know we were okay.

Have we come together in a time of need, yes, Many are working together now in our hour of need to make changes for the better. Will we work together to make our communities, our state, and nation a better place, I would say yes as that is how we are built.

Reverend Paul N. Papas II is a Pastoral Counselor with Narrow Path Ministries (MA and AZ) and Founder of the Family Renewal Center (AZ) www.narrowpathministries.org  and www.familyrenewalcenteraz.org

Reference:

Remembering the 1978 Blizzard