As the skies darkened over Natchez Monday, an eerily familiar mood hung in the air. It was the fear that something bad was just around the corner.

Thunder boomed, rain poured down and lightning crackled across the skies most of the day and for many residents the day reminded them of a similar day back in February 1998.

When the skies cleared two years ago, our city was pretty beat up — portions of downtown looked as if a bomb had gone off and streets all over town were blocked by fallen trees. As the winds swirled up bits and pieces of our town, residents were terrified. Dozens of children were scared to death at Cathedral School when a wall collapsed during the height of the storm.

As the weather subsided we all realized how lucky we were. Despite heavy damage in some portions of town, no one was seriously injured.

In the two years since that horrible February day, Miss-Lou residents have often thought back to the what happened then.

And, more important than just reliving the bad things that happened that day, through those memories we’ve learned a few lessons. Two years ago, some emergency personnel had difficulty communicating with one another. On Monday, crews worked smoothly to clear debris from roads and get things back to normal.

We’ve all begun to take the threat of natural disasters a little more seriously.

Fortunately this time, our area dodged the bullet. But we’d like to thank the hard work of all of the emergency personnel — from the crews wielding chainsaws on the streets to the civil defense directors.