WS Chronicle

On Tuesday, Dec. 11, Gov. Roy Cooper requested federal disaster assistance for 21 North Carolina counties affected by Hurricane Michael in a letter to President Donald Trump. The 21 counties included Forsyth County.

“Tropical Storm Michael inflicted major damage to North Carolina at a time when it was already devastated by Hurricane Florence,” Cooper said. “Many people are suffering from the effects of Hurricane Michael and we want to get them the help they deserve.”

Preliminary damage assessments conducted by the state and county governments found damages in excess of $22 million due to Michael, which hit North Carolina in early October after making a devastating landfall in the Florida panhandle.

Michael caused four deaths in North Carolina.

We don’t have a consensus name for the early winter storm that North Carolina and Forsyth County has just gotten over, but people died – three – in this storm, too. Lives were disrupted, with the snow, ice and power outages. School, utility and local government officials and workers stepped up to the plate to help us out.

Winter is not until Dec. 21, yet we have had to sustain yet another interruption in our lives. 2018 will end, we can count on that, but will we have to go through more disruption before it ends?

Oh, yeah, remember part of Business 40 has been shut down and will be for two years, and additional parts of the highway continue to be closed as repairs get underway. But they will  reopen. And tthework continues.

Lives in Forsyth County will continue to face disruption. Winter is not here yet, so expect more winter storms. The school system probably will face more decisions about whether or not to close schools because of storms. The City of Winston-Salem will halt garbage pickup again. Events will have to be rescheduled.

If it ain’t one thing, it’s another. But we can all be thankful that we have a governor, school, utility and local government officials and workers who can help us handle life’s disruptions.