Our recent winter storms brought out best in people

While I have definitely gotten a lot more jaded and cynical after decades of writing about crime and destruction, I still like to believe that there are a lot more good people than there are bad people in the world.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

Disasters and emergencies, like our recent ice and snow storms, tend to show you a lot about what people are really like, and I think that goes a long way towards proving my theory about there being more good people out there than bad.

During our multiple recent storms in addition to battling fires and helping cut trapped people out of vehicles, our local firefighters have also been busy helping remove downed trees and ice-covered tree limbs out of roadways and in some cases using their personal four-wheel drive vehicles to help people like healthcare professionals get to work.

I think it is also worth pointing out that most of our firefighters are volunteers, who don’t get paid for what they do, and often have to stage road blocks and chili suppers in order to help cover the cost utilities for the fire hall and fuel for the fire trucks.

Corbin Police Chief Rusty Hedrick recently noted that officers from his department had been working to help pick up and deliver prescription medications to those in need, who couldn’t get out during the storms or their aftermath.

Based on past experience, I know that there are officers from numerous other departments, who have done the same thing or something similar.

Unbeknownst to him, I had the chance to witness a good deed by Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Officer Steve Douglas last Thursday morning, who stopped his police cruiser to help a woman wearing shorts and flip flops, shovel snow out of her driveway. It wasn’t something he had to do. It was something he chose to do to help someone in need.

Knowing Steve, it didn’t surprise me.

During events like our recent winter storms, there have been a lot of people going out of their way to help others, and not just because it is part of their jobs.

There are also a lot of other people, who went above and beyond the call of duty, just to do their jobs.

One of our reporters, Jennifer Perkins, wrote a story a few days ago about Dr. Travis Gilbert, who when he couldn’t get to work in his SUV one day during the ice storm, so instead he rode a four-wheeler to work at Baptist Health Corbin where he delivered six babies.

Did I mention a few years back that Travis rode his Razer to work in the freezing cold one day during a blizzard?

Given that I have known Travis since he was born, I can’t say that any of that surprised me though.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to all the everyday heroes out there doing their jobs, in addition to the ones, who have been working overtime to clear our roads of snow and ice and restore electricity to our homes and businesses. We also owe a really big thank you to those, who have gone out of their way to help others.

You will find an ad on page A-15 in this week’s edition of the News Journal thanking all of our essential workers for what they have done in recent days.

You will also see a feature on the People page this week highlighting just a handful of those, who went out of their way to help others during the storm, or who went to great lengths to get to work so they could serve others.