Now that we have pulled out from the Panama City and Mexico City Beach area, we have been repeatedly asked “How was the panhandle disaster relief?”
We drove away from the area, destruction in our rearview mirror and normalcy stretched out in front of us. It stuck me that I felt like we just toured a Hollywood Movie set.
The movie set was approximately a 30 to 50 mile diameter dome (similar to the one in the Truman Show), and the storyline was about the end of the world.
While on the set, we experienced the harsh reality of daily struggles of no electricity, roofs caving in, dangerous trees hanging in the roadways and children freezing in makeshift tents. Christmas joy was replaced with the feelings of abandonment and despair. People struggling to keep thier children from getting cold or getting sick from mold. People walking in the streets with masks covering thier faces. Sounds of chainsaws and generators filled the air. People were searching for places to live or to work. Businesses were shut down. On every street were stacks of sheet rock, furniture, insulation and thousands of broken trees.
It was really hard to imagine there was normal life happening outside of that dome. It was impossible to think that Christmas is only days away.
The day came to leave this movie set. My heart was torn. As we started to pull away from the set, we began to see fewer trees snapped in half, fewer blue tarps and the streets lined with rubble disappeared behind us.
Suddenly we were out of the dome. Normalcy sprawled before us. Small town streets lined with festive Christmas lights. People in stores picking out toys for thier kids and spreading Christmas cheer. Within a day of departing the movie set, I start to question if it was real or not. These two completely opposite worlds can not really exist only mere miles apart. Can they?
I want to scream at people in neighboring towns “GO HELP THEM!! Don’t you know that they are suffering?” “How can we buy some frivolous gifts when people have NOTHING only a few miles away?”
How do people all over the USA not know that this dome of destruction and despair exists? How come the media isn’t providing coverage of this particular movie set?
I am having a hard time understanding and balancing my feelings. I must turn to my only source of comfort as I struggle with a weird sense of survivors guilt. Only He can bring peace and fully restore the spirit of the people under the dome of destruction.
Please Don’t forget the people in the FL Panhandle. They need us not to forget.
*photo credit @faithtakesflight
