Evelyn C. McDonald
Arts & Culture Reporter
October 12, 2016 3:01 p.m.
I’m looking at the back fence that used to enclose my yard. A tree limb crashed down on it and I’m waiting to see what it’s going to take to fix it. Other than that, the house was okay. All around town, I hear people saying we were lucky. A little shift in Matthew’s direction and low tide helped stave off what could have been a disaster.
I went to a home in Georgia that belongs to the sister of a friend with my two cats and a third that I was watching. I added to the menagerie at the house, which included three adults, four dogs, and another cat. Needless to say we all had our quarters though the dogs had to alternate in the main part of the house. The cats and I came home Sunday. There were two things about the few days we rode out the storm that impressed me.
We lost power Friday night and then realized we had another problem. The house had a well and the well had a pump. No power, no pump, no water. We had bottled water to drink and a lake out back. We collected rain water from the storm Friday and then from the lake on Saturday. We had candles and flashlights. It’s amazing how many times you flip a light switch or turn a faucet then realize you have neither power nor water. We coped and we laughed a lot. We used a defining characteristic of humans – problem solving.
The other thing occurred to me when we were cleaning up. The tree that fell missed the house but blocked the driveway. A pickup truck came to look at another tree that had fallen across the road. The woman who owned the house went over to talk to the driver and happened to mention that she had a tree down across her driveway. He went to his truck and pulled out a chain saw. He said he couldn’t clear the whole tree but he could and did clear the driveway. Later that day neighbors showed up with wheelbarrows and rakes to help clear off the debris that had blown around the house. Simple gestures like that reaffirm the idea that we need to help each other.
Ingenuity and a sense we’re all in this together are often discounted values but they are critical. Matthew tested both values and we all seemed to pass. The Jacksonville TV stations shared a number of stories of people going out of their way to help each other. In an age where division is more publicized, it is reassuring to know we can still solve problems and work together.
Evelyn McDonald moved to Fernandina Beach from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. in 2006. She is a chair of Arts & Culture Nassau, a city commission charged with support of the arts in Nassau County. She serves on FSCJ’s Curriculum Committee for the Center for Lifelong Learning. She is also the chair of the Dean’s Council for the Carpenter Library at the UNF. Ms. McDonald has MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland’s University College and a BA in Spanish from the University of Michigan.