An ode to the blizzards of helpers

To be sure, there was plenty of trauma and surely some tragedy that hit along with the blizzard of 2011.

A woman stranded all night in her car with her dogs on Big Timber Road in Elgin. A couple desperately needing to get to the hospital for the birth of their child in Naperville. Someone found dead in a car in a snowy ditch in Grayslake. Scores more stranded in cars all over the region.

Most of us, though, made it through. Or we will. Most of us made it home, or somewhere safely. We waited out the storm, marveling at the February lightning and snow thunder from the security of warm, well-lit sanctuaries. And for that marveling and making it through, we give thanks.

Thanks for sophisticated weather modeling and all those meteorologists about whom we love to whine. For indeed, they did more than get it right. They also gave us early warning, time to stock up, make arrangements and get, mostly safely, to our destinations.

Thanks to public works department workers everywhere, who tried their best to get out, salt the streets and stay out and ahead of the blinding snow for 24 hours straight, nonstop. Thanks to drivers of plows, big and small, who worked, tired and tirelessly, to clear the way. To tow truck drivers who pulled out stranded cars and offered more than a few people a ride to safety.

Gratitude to neighbor upon neighbor upon neighbor who shared their time, their muscle, their gas and their bigger snow throwers to the rest of us who surely were close to collapsing as we contemplated what was left of those four- and five-foot drifts in our long suburban driveways.

And an appreciation to all those neighbors, children and grandchildren who checked on their elderly neighbors and parents and grandparents and who made those last-minute runs to Jewel and Dominick's to help them stock up.

Our gratitude to all police and firefighters and paramedics who kept fighting through to assist whoever needed it on a frightening night. And many thanks to all who are not emergency workers, but who hopped on their snowmobiles anyway and got out there to help those in need when they probably would have preferred to stay inside by the warmth of the firelight.

We offer our awe to those who bundled up at 5 a.m. and tromped miles to help out at the hospital or trudged through hip-deep snow to open the corner gas station, convenience store or coffee shop.

We may face more trying times ahead as a deep freeze follows the inches-an-hour snow, biting winds, lightning and thunder that seemed to swallow us Tuesday and Wednesday. And after the freeze, a flood? Who knows what may still come. All we do know is that we owe our gratitude to the hundreds among us who, in ways big and small, gave of themselves to help the rest of us survive this storm.