Several students of mine from OMA, my old school, used Facebook to cheer the school cancellations that resulted, while later admitting they were bored being stuck in the house with flooded yards and streets. And alas, seven deaths have been reported by the AJC in the area. Even though it is halfway around the world, this is still my community.
I am pleased to see, though, that despite the grim situation, some folks have retained their sense of humor:
I haven't heard yet about my house in north Coweta Co., about three miles from the Chattahoochee River, though it is near the top of a hill. Nonetheless, I am reminded of these cliche-ridden lines from John Donne:
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
