I’m a High School senior who lives in Alabama. My house got power today for the first time since the storms. I can’t complain. We lost power, communication to the outside world, everything in our fridge, and the ability to take a warm shower; that’s nothing when there are houses less than a mile away that are just…gone.

Last week I was sick of the small town life. Now I thank God for the community I live in. For every looter, there have been hundreds of strangers helping one another. For every person bickering over gas, there’s another cracking Wizard of Oz jokes.

FEMA has been great. The National Guard and local police departments have been wonderful. But when the going gets tough, it’s the people around you that you count on the most.

Maybe this is just cheesy advice from an emotional teenage girl, but please take my advice. Don’t take the people in your life for granted. One minute you might be delayed from school for what seems to be a typical summer storm, the next those people may be gone.