Vermont pulls together after Irene…One guy airlifts himself out
I spoke Wednesday on the air with the statewide editor of the Rutland Herald, Rob Mitchell. I also spoke with him Monday, when the full breadth of what had happened in that state as a result of Tropical Storm Irene was just starting to emerge. In that conversation, Rob was close to tears as he talked about the people who’d risked–and in at least one case–lost, their lives trying to ensure the safety of others.
Wednesday before we began our “official” conversation, Rob mentioned a story he’d seen about a Wall Street Trader, in Pittsfield, VT., for a wedding when Irene hit, who’d hired a helicopter to get him out when he and his mother (and about 400 others) had become trapped.
The story popped into my mind again this morning, and here it is, on Bloomberg. The article quotes the trader–38-year-old Scott Redler–as saying “I wasn’t going to wait for the state or federal government…I can’t trust them, because I know I’m not a priority.”
It really wouldn’t be appropriate for me to say Redler did something wrong here, or indeed that he did the right thing. I don’t know what I would do in that situation, and Redler’s mother was reportedly running out of medication. I’ll just close this post by telling you something else Rob Mitchell said to me, about the same town (and potentially the same wedding):
They were cut off in every direction…the town was split in half by the floodwater and many homes were dislodged. There was actually a wedding party that had, they’d gotten married on Saturday and on Sunday they were trying to get out and they couldn’t get out because the waters were rising and the roads were eroding.
So there was about 60 people from out of state in this tiny little town of 400, who said hey, we’ve seen this before, many of them had gone through September 11th, and they just pitched in and helped.
And that town organized every resource they had, and they started building roads to link themselves with the outside world, and they had people monitoring folks that needed help, who had medical issues. and they really kind of survived on their own and were doing well.
Like Scott Redler, the other people in Pittsfield didn’t wait for the federal government to rescue them. I guess it’s safe to say they made one another the priority.
Tags: irene
This is a very poignant story and seems to me a good analogy to what is happening in the country in general. It seems there is a class of people who feel they are above the rest of us. This trader was happy enough to use the public resources (roads, bridges…) to get to Vermont when it was convenient but as soon as his help was needed for the good of everyone else he helicoptered himself out of there.
A friend of mine, 79 years old and life long Republican told me this the other day.
He said he’d donated to relief for Haiti, tsunami and flooding victims in 3rd World countries but he said he’s not donating for relief efforts in the US anymore. He said that this is the United States, we’re a rich country and we have a government that is supposed to take care of such things. “Just clean it up and I’ll pay my taxes.”