Anxiously waiting

For the skies to open up

Rain beautiful rain

Thanks to all of you out there who read and responded to my post Friday about the wildfires in South and North Carolina. I am thrilled to report that Sunday we finally began to get some rain. While this is not the end of the fires, it does mean that conditions are much better than they were and that we are feeling very relieved. Our fire fighters and first responders were able to get a bit of rest and back up help came in to help with the efforts.

This has definitely been a week of ups and downs. Living in the shadow of a forest fire is traumatic in so many ways. I cannot begin to tell you how many emotions I experienced this week. Whew. We are so grateful for all of the folks who have been working non stop to keep the fires away from homes and businesses and who have served in all kinds of capacities. Our community came together, once again. to support those who needed the support and proved once again that there are good people in the world.

One of the most incredible things that happened that we witnessed were the coordinated efforts to get water from our lake to the fires. We witnessed helicopters flying missions to our lake to gather buckets of water to then carry to the fires. Helicopter after helicopter — two afternoons filled with noisy skies and wind from helicopter blades became music to our ears. Looking up in the sky through our budding trees this was a sight that we were so grateful to see.

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So many people took so many great pictures and this one is perhaps my favorite one by Sarah Yarabough Dearbaugh – resident of Connestee Falls.

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Another really great photo taken by another Connestee Falls resident, Jeff Testerman, shows another photo of the helicopter gathering water.

These scenes brought tears to my eyes and were a huge part of keeping the fire closest to our community at bay.

While we are still being cautious, we are happy that things are turning in the right direction and hopefully by the end of the week our air will be cleaner and our worries about fires will be put to rest. I have never been so happy to hear the pounding of rain on the roof.