Dear Officers, Deputies, Firefighters/EMS, Dispatchers, Directors, and Volunteers:
We’ve always used adjectives like “strong” and “brave” and “valiant” and “courageous” to describe the thankless duties you do for us, but floods are different, now aren’t they?
When the creeks and streams and the Ohio River push over their banks and up through the sewers, there’s a relentlessness, a helplessness, and – let’s be brutally honest – a special kind of stupid you all must handle unconditionally. That’s because of the two-sided love affair between the tax-paying people and their first-responder heroes, and most of the time it’s an understood, invisible admiration.
Not now, though, and not for most of April. People have been scared, frustrated, and worried about their homes and about their stuff, and shoot, they’re still physically and mentally exhausted from the first round of flooding. And, well, here we go again.
So, before the second flood-stage crest in eight days, we just wanted to say THANK YOU for telling us everything is going to be OK, and then helping us make that statement come true.
Sincerely,
The Muddied, the Bloodied, and the Grateful
