WS Chronicle

Subtropical Storm Alberto brought a lot of rain to the Southeast, and it proved to be fatal.

A North Carolina state trooper tells the Associated Press that a tree fell across U.S. Highway 176 near Tryon, N.C., crushing a vehicle from a Greenville, South Carolina, television station and killing a TV anchor and photojournalist. Tryon is just across the state line.

The area received heavy rain from the fringes of Subtropical Storm Alberto.

The tree fell in Polk County not far from where a landslide killed a woman in her home on May 19 after heavy rains.

It can happen here.

Weather reports say the Triad area will have thunderstorms all week, even though Subtropical Storm Alberto is no more.

Forecasters warn about the rain, which was expected to inundate us in April, to bring May flowers. We should heed the warnings: The land is so saturated that runoff from the land can cause mudslides and the rain can uproot trees, which fall on anything in their paths.

We say the nursery rhyme of “Rain, rain go away, come again another day, Little Johnny wants to play” … in the hopes that we can enjoy ourselves without getting wet. But maybe we should say it because we want to be safe.

Many people might not take the rain seriously, but as we can see, it can cause havoc. When trees get dislodged and fall and mud slides from where there is no grass to stop it, people can get hurt.

And we must not forget the wrecks that abound in the rain.

Two people trying to get the information to help others lost their lives in the rain. How could they have known what would happen?

We pay homage to these two men who are in the news business like we are and pray that their families and friends will find solace in the fact that they were like “first responders,” trying to help others.

We also hope that as much as you can, please be careful in the rain.