Virginia
People in Southwest Virginia remember the derecho 10 years later
ROANOKE, Va. – It’s now been a decade after a derecho devastated properties and companies within the Commonwealth.
Many individuals, like Betsy Shearin, are sharing their recollections of the storm.
It was a standard day on the Salem Pink Sox stadium.
“Nice recreation, we had been taking part in the Potomac Nationals,” Shearin stated.
[READ MORE: Looking back on the 2012 derecho that devastated the region]
Shearin, her son and her son’s pal attended the Salem Pink Sox recreation earlier than the derecho hit.
“We began watching the flags. They began to get loopy,” Shearin stated.
Shearin stated they had been informed to remain within the basement of the stadium, which is the place they acquired to fulfill with Salem Pink Sox gamers.
Shearin needed to depart as a result of it was scorching within the stadium basement, however was grateful she stayed.
“There was trashed piled up, particles flying round like loopy on the parking zone, all the road lights had been out. “
Bradley Wright, the emergency administration coordinator with Pulaski County, stated they acquired quite a few calls after the storm hit.
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He stated the world was recovering from a twister a 12 months earlier than the derecho hit. In line with Wright, groups from 5 departments, together with police and fireplace, labored greater than 400 hours someday after the affect.
“I used to be off however went again and labored into the night into the evening. We responded to bushes down, bushes on the homes, being within the mountains you wouldn’t assume twister, or what was a derecho,” Wright stated.
Botetourt County Hearth Chief Jason Ferguson stated in addition they needed to cope with bushes destroying properties and assist cattle.
“We even despatched firetrucks to help with watering livestock as a result of the pumps from the creek to fill the troughs had been out,” Ferguson stated.
Copyright 2022 by WSLS 10 – All rights reserved.
Virginia
Warmer weather and rain on its way to Virginia
RICHMOND, Va. — Christmas Day will be dry and seasonable, with a mixture of sun and clouds.
Highs will be in the upper 40s to near 50.
Sunset is 4:57 p.m. for those observing the beginning of Hanukkah.
We’ll experience warmer weather this weekend, with temperatures rising into the upper 40s and low 60s.
Rain is expected on Sunday and Monday, with a 60% chance of rain on Sunday.
Overall, the weather is expected to improve, becoming milder and drier as the weekend approaches.
Stay With CBS 6, The Weather Authority.
STORM TRACKING LINKS:
Weather Alerts
Interactive Radar
Map Center
Closings & Delays
📱 Download the new and improved CBS 6 Weather App for iPhone and Android.
Virginia
Yes, Virginia (and all other believers) there is a Santa Claus | Column
Editor’s note: This is a reprint of a timeless column written years ago by the journalist Eric Newton.
More than a hundred years ago, an 8-year-old girl wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun: “Please tell me the truth: is there a Santa Claus?” The answer — “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” — is the most reprinted newspaper editorial of all time, a classic appearing in dozens of languages, in editorials, books and movies, on posters and stamps, even in the Old Farmer’s Almanac.
What makes it endure? Is it because “Yes, Virginia” perpetuates the best traditions of Christmas? Because it touches on the connection between parents and children? Because it makes us long for the days of the great American newspaper? Or is it something more?
The author, Sun editorial writer Francis Pharcellus Church, grumbled a bit when handed the little girl’s letter. “Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus,” wrote Virginia O’Hanlon. “Please tell me the truth …” Something in the innocent query touched the veteran newsman. Church quickly turned in a 500-word reply, printed on Sept. 21, 1897, on Page 6, with no byline.
“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” Church wrote. “He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.”
The editorial was destined to live on, far beyond Church’s death in 1906; the Sun’s, in 1950; and even Mrs. Virginia O’Hanlon Douglas’ in 1971.
By its 100th anniversary, Church’s gift of words turned into a Christmas treasure for some 200 greeting card companies.
“You couldn’t stop it if you wanted to,” says Richard Church Thompson, a relative of the writer.
Howell Raines, a St. Petersburg (now Tampa Bay) Times alumnus and former executive editor of The New York Times, says the story speaks about generations: “What this child is doing is knocking on the door of the adult world and asking to be let in … and what this editor is doing is protecting her — and his adult readers.”
Crusty newspaper editors have a particularly soft spot for “Yes, Virginia.” The editorial evokes a time when newspapers were the most trusted news medium, when the great American editorial really was the great American editorial. As Virginia put it in her letter: “Papa says ‘If you see it in the Sun it’s so.’ ” But there is more. Church didn’t just spin another yarn about Santa Claus, notes historian William David Sloan. “He gave us a reason for believing.”
“Yes, Virginia” is not merely 100-plus years old; it’s as old as people. It’s not just about a girl in New York; it’s about children everywhere, and grown-ups big enough to remember. It’s not even about Santa; substitute the symbol of your choice. “Yes, Virginia” is about faith, about believing in things you can’t see, about wonder, joy and love.
Santa today is under attack. He’s too commercial, too European, too Christian, too fat, even. But whether you like him or not, let him live. Francis Pharcellus Church did, and we’re toasting him 100 years later. Virginia did, and she grew up to be an educator in New York to teach countless children with special needs about Christmas, newspapers, families, faith.
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“No Santa Claus!” wrote Church. “Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”
Eric Newton, the former managing editor of the Newseum, is now innovation chief at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Tuesday, September 21, 1897
Dear editor:
I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says “If you see it in the Sun it’s so.” Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon
115 West Ninety-Fifth Street
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except (what) they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Virginia
Good News: Owl surprises Virginia family by perching atop Christmas tree
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