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Friday, May 19, 2006
COLUMN: Bill Nemitz
Media missed sunny side of flood story
Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||
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Also on this page: FLOOD WATCH | |||||
YORK - The rain they can handle. It's this week's nonstop news that has the people of soggy York Beach pleading, "Enough!" "We got really panicked when the calls started coming in from all over the country," said Cathy Goodwin, president of The Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce. "People were calling to cancel their reservations. They think we look like New Orleans, which we don't." Try telling that to the 24-hour cable news channels. Cycle after cycle, their coverage of the Flood of 2006 inevitably showed York Beach under 3 feet of water. It showed propane tanks floating down Railroad Avenue. It showed the summer tourist season, just weeks away, going down the drain. Now for what it didn't show. It didn't show Trudi George. She's 65 (although at her recent birthday party, she rearranged the cake to read "56") and lives in the elderly-housing complex about a mile from the flooded village. George approached Goodwin just before noon Wednesday with a shovel in one hand and a broom in the other and said, "Send me in some direction." "I have free time. I might as well use it to do something," George said when asked if this was any way to spent her retirement. "I feel so bad for all of these people." The cable news didn't show Mike Ehrenborg. He lives with his wife and kids in nearby Green Acres, where he runs a one-man engineering firm - meaning he didn't have to ask the boss for a day off. "I saw it all on TV and figured what the hell, I'll come down and help out," said Ehrenborg, his arms full of debris from Sweet Josie's Candy Shoppe. As he spoke, a flock of young kids paraded by, cleaning buckets thumping against their legs. "That," Ehrenborg said, "is the way it should be." The never-ending news didn't show Missy Freeman. Normally, she'd be home-schooling her four young children - Jerrod, 8; twins Orin and Mary, 7; and Gibson, 4. But on this day, they scampered from store to store on Railroad Avenue, latex gloves in hand, begging to help. "We just wanted to do our part," Freeman explained. "We're trying to make good people, not just good students." In the end, there's a lot about this crisis that the 24/7 news stations didn't show. By the time the sun came out Wednesday and dozens of volunteers descended on the village to help bring it back to life, the national news spotlight had moved on. No more flood, no more story. But the best story here isn't about the flood. It's about a community that will not stop scrubbing, sweeping and shoveling until its tourist season is saved. It's about Peggy Fennelly, 73, who's owned and operated Sweet Josie's for 19 years and will be damned if a little water - OK, a lot of water - is going to dissolve her 20th. "Come hell or high water, I will be open by Memorial Day," Fennelly said with a confident smile. "I mean it! Come back on Memorial Day and I'll give you a banana split!" This story is also about the 60-something woman in a Colorado T-shirt who stopped her minivan right next to the "York Beach is OPEN!" sign affixed to a traffic barricade. She got out, walked over to Police Chief Doug Bracy and asked, "Can you tell me how to get to Nubble Light?" "I sure can," Bracy said with a weary smile. The water's barely gone . . . and already a confirmed tourist sighting. Spread the news.
Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at:
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As the wild weather takes a break, York County residents and businesses focus on drying out, cleaning up and assessing the damage. Get complete news coverage and tips in