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Mt. Couple Returns 'Compassion' Of 2007 Firestorm |
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Thursday, 20 November 2008 |
By Lee Ragin, Jr. --
Longtime Black Voice News health columnist Dr. Ernest Levister and his wife BVN correspondent Chris watched TV images in horror of a swiftly moving catastrophe that seemed as familiar as it was shocking Saturday. Southern California once again was besieged by
flame from Orange County to Santa Barbara, with hundreds of homes consumed by three major wind driven fires, including one of the most devastating blazes ever to strike the city of Los
Angeles.
The images served up vivid memories, the Levister’s Lake Arrowhead home was severely damaged during the devastating October 2007 Grass Valley/Slide wildfire that swept through
acres of mountain brush and alpine trees destroying nearly 300 homes in its path.
“First we trembled, and then we shook. That eerie color of raging orange, the apprehension, the anger, the impatience and guilt those emotions all came roaring back. It’s not something
you forget,” said Mrs. Levister. “Our first response was to gather our belongings and prepare for the worse: a repeat of 07. Than we said, we were lucky, lets turn these visceral reactions into something good.”
The couple received over 400 emails, phone calls and offers of assistance and shelter during their two-week evacuation. “That outpouring of compassion and love even from perfect
Levister’s join hundreds offering assistance to victims of Orange-Riverside County blazes strangers remains etched in our collective memory. The humanitarian spirit helped get us through the rough spots when hope seemed like a distant cry,” she said.
Sunday morning the couple loaded their vehicle with bottled water, flashlights and other emergency aid and headed down the mountain toward the ravaged hills of Diamond Bar, Chino
Hills and Corona in Riverside County, dubbed the Freeway Complex fire.
At Corona High School amid the 200 or so frightened and exhausted people evacuated from the fires some of the first words we heard were ‘We lost everything’. What do you say to someone
whose worldly possessions are reduced to a pile of ash and twisted metal? Nothing!
“You just hug them as if to breathe in their grieving and pain,” said Mrs. Levister. “It’s not something you can put into words - it’s cerebral,” said Dr. Levister.
Red Cross and other emergency personnel in full disaster mode whizzed by us giving aide and comfort. It was all too familiar - the vivid stories of devastation and survival, the grieving families
embracing in the corner, babies wailing, the pungent odors of day old fast food, the smells of stale perfume, perspiration and poverty, the fishing buddies who found reason to rejoice, the steady stream of dazed and confused – people some who had shared the same neighborhood
for years meeting for the first time, “in many respects it was just so sad,” recalled Mrs. Levister. “But at the end of the day it was neighbor helping neighbor, strangers helping strangers.”
The fact that these people were all perfect strangers to us didn’t matter we know compassion always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed. So we unloaded our care packages, rolled up our sleeves and got to work,” said Dr. Levister. “It felt good to give back.”
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