What is there to say at a time such as this? Sports, along with most aspects of everyday life, have been placed on the back burner for a time while Clay County people dig out from the flood of 2016, but we will dig out. The Ron Sirk Challenge was held just before the storms hit the state. Players from many schools participated, and it was a wet one. The Panthers did well as did all the teams, and it was a chance to see what everyone needed to work on come August 1st. However, the rain put a damper on the event, and it had to be stopped a couple of times due to lightning, but the boys finished the event none the less.
Then the storm hit and life changed in the county. Every day things that were taken for granted have now become a necessity. We stand in awe and wonder how after all these years could it happen here, yet it did. People of this county will not hang their heads and give up, the community will not succumb to disaster but will rise up from it because it is who we are – survivors. Our youth are out there doing what needs to be done not because they want patted on the back or put in the limelight, but because they have seen their parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, friends and neighbors providing assistance, and it is the right thing to do.
Hard working generations run deep in this county and they rebuilt when all seemed lost and struggling to keep food on the table was a normal day. Those generations made it because they worked together to make life bearable and better for future generations. So now we as a people are in a situation where normalcy has taken a back seat to uncertainty and panic. I have driven all over the county and have seen, as well as most others, that people see a need, step up and are meeting that need. Those who have lost it all in the flood are helping others who have lost the same. Harsh times are a tough instructor, and it will show us a side of ourselves that we didn’t know existed. It has been said that a smooth sea never made a good sailor, neither does uninterrupted success or easy living qualify us as tough strong willed people. It is storms like this flood that rouse a new faculty within us and excite our ways of invention, prudence, skill, and intestinal fortitude and drive us to be a better county. The people of our past looked at tragedy as giving them a greater purpose and a chance see life as being more than just about themselves; they became transcendental in their thoughts and in their actions.
The actions of most people in this county and those abroad are a thing of beauty. In this storm that has affected so many, I have heard of acts of heroism like one who was almost swept away in the swift current had it not been for a strong loving hand with a death grip that pulled her to safety, a family who escaped the rapidly raising water by climbing a hill with a four month old baby and stayed under a tarp through the night after their house was washed away. I am sure many tales of strength, honor, love, and heroism will come out in the months ahead and will be a comfort when all seems like it’s over. It is never over – hope is the last thing that dies within people. Let’s not let it die in this county. We will rebuild somehow, but it will be on the backs of those who dare to make it a better place to live. It is what we do, we are Clay County strong and proud of it!