Last night, tragedy hit as we all stood by watching, helpless to prevent the unavoidable damage and loss except to move to higher ground to wait for the havoc and destruction to carry itself out.

My kids and grandkids are safe and relatively unscathed. A few broken tree limbs and excess water but otherwise they are fine. However, this morning revealed so many friends who lost much more and many who have no home to which they can return.

Hurricanes happen all the time. Helene, however, had the intensity and trajectory to wreak more destruction than anticipated. She’s now winding down and being dispersed and diffused into manageable localized tropical storms and clearer skies.

And not for the first time, nor the last, as they always do, the people rise in the morning to assess and rebuild.

We are our brothers’ keepers. Pray, give money, give time and take caution over so many of the things which are out of our control, but reluctantly in our purview of responsibility.