Editor, Gazette-Journal:

No words can describe the devastation that happened on Saturday here in Gloucester and the neighboring counties. Lives were changed within seconds. The suddenness of it all is what is so shocking. One minute we are living our daily routines and the next we are dealing with death and destruction.

I am writing this not to state the obvious and to lament our situation, but to point out the good that has come out of this terrible storm.

Immediately after the storm, the people of my neighborhood—Coke—started to work checking on the safety of one another and helping to locate missing people. I was out of town on a Boy Scout day trip and was called by a neighbor who told me of the storm. I immediately thought of my father-in-law who was in our house and started calling around to see if I could locate him. Two of my neighbors volunteered to look for him even though their houses had been badly damaged. Eventually, we discovered he was safe and they c...