A year ago today, the winds howled and rain screamed from the sky as Mother Nature, masquerading as Hurricane Gustav, plunged the area into complete darkness.

Coming on the heels of the anniversary of deadly Hurricane Katrina, all eyes watched Gustav carefully.

The day started out simply enough, just a few showers at first, leading many to believe our area would be spared the worst of the storm’s wrath.

Slowly, however, the wind and rain picked up speed and ferocity, ultimately downing all five large electrical transmission lines that feed the county.

Uprooted trees blocked many normally busy roadways and the almost inescapable sense of panic that seems to follow such storms crept into the minds of many residents, sending them scurrying for whatever basic necessities they could find.

In the end, our community was extremely blessed, however, as no one was seriously injured in the storm. Damaged houses were easily repaired or replaced, downed trees were eventually cleaned up and life came back to normal.

Like Hurricane Katrina, Gustav changed our community, at least a little, but mostly in annoying, rather than devastating ways.

But few of us will forget the problems Hurricane Gustav caused for our community and its people. Few of us will also forget the wonderful spirit of working together to get problems fixed that many of us saw, too.

That spirit is one to remember in our day-to-day lives, not only in times of crisis. We hope the spirit of togetherness, cooperation and helpfulness lives on.

Hopefully, we’ll each be a little better prepared the next time that severe weather threatens our community again.