The National Guard Is In Town Today
They are here in response to the coordinated effort in Erie County, NY to get the streets clear and help with any rescue efforts after the blizzard
I know that I had heard that the National Guard was coming to help in the relief and rescue efforts but I’d never seen anything like it firsthand. There were about four camo Hummers lined up in the diesel line to fuel up. I’m not just talking about your regular standard-issue H2 Hummer, but these were like legitimate military-grade Hummers sitting there. There were about a dozen or more men in uniform right outside of the store at the truck stop we are at.
I was so amazed at this sight that when I saw a couple of individual uniformed men in line at the store, I thanked them for their efforts and their service. There really is a dangerous task ahead for many emergency service and uniformed workers to keep everyone safe after the blizzard, the deaths, and the looting.
Yeah, about that last part, there were massive reports of looting all over the city of Buffalo directly after the storm since the emergency services hadn’t been restored in many parts of the city at that point. I don’t usually give my reverence so easily to someone in uniform but I definitely knew why they were in the area on this particular day and it was a noble task that they had ahead of them.
I think I was also getting caught up in the emotion of surviving the worst blizzard to hit Buffalo in over 40 years despite the many events that tried to make that almost impossible. I think that I saw these men as a representative of serving in a good cause as opposed to being here for the wrong reasons. They’re out here trying to save lives and to truly protect and serve. I know that they were deployed by the federal government and the state government to help out in the emergency relief efforts and I think that is why I wasn’t so uppity around them as I would normally be when I’m around any sort of uniform.
Since it was the National Guard, I think that I had more respect for them because of my family’s history of volunteering in positions such as that. These are men that train one weekend a month and are ready to step up in any emergency deployment situation. I’m sure that the servicemen that I greeted with a warm smile and a “Thank you for your service,” truly appreciated the sentiment I was trying to send to them for just being here when they didn’t necessarily need to be. These men got themselves up for the challenge of saving lives after a natural disaster and I am almost tearing up thinking about the sacrifice they made to be here and the effort still ahead for them to get the city back to some semblance of normalcy now.
The National Guard was a great sight to see because not only did the city just go through a major tragedy and disaster. We suffered many personal traumas ourselves and nearly died ourselves in this storm. They are really a sign of hope and of rebuilding to us personally after experiencing such trauma. We’re grateful that there are people out there dedicated to helping those in need and saving lives.
Emergency responders and first responders that were out in the storm when it was really going on and that got trapped and stuck in the snow also really deserve major props. They went out when they knew that doing that would be life-threatening but they also felt that sense of duty. This city is a really tough city. It will definitely recover from this. It has experienced massive blizzards and snowstorms before.
In fact, Buffalo is frequently #1 on the list of most snow for a city in any given winter and they have probably hands-down won the title with months left to go. The National Guard has to know what kind of environment they’re coming into and that makes me feel even more reverence and respect and almost gratitude toward them at this point. Thank you for all that you do, National Guard servicemen and women.
