When the winds hit Lawrence County last week, it was sudden and strong.

It was not a tornado, according to the National Weather Service, rather it was microburst winds, which meant it just a matter of minutes it went from relatively calm spring wind to 90 mph on Tuesday afternoon.

From Greenup, Kentucky to Charleston, West Virginia, trees, roofs, windows and even the giant poles that hold up roadside billboards came down quickly and violently.

People lost electricity and internet service.

911 dispatches across the Tri-State were buried under hundreds of calls for service.

First responders responded to their stations to help. City and village workers were out in force.

AEP had trucks and workers from the region waiting for the storm to hit and then repair the damage.

Citizens were out too, doing what they could to help, whether it was be with chainsaws or just checking on neighbors.

We are a resilient community. We all know that when devastation happens, it takes time to get resources, be it local or state, in to help.

We help where we can, to the best of our abilities.

That is our strength — that in times of need, we act as a community.

We at The Tribune commend and thank all those who do what must be done. Whether it is first responders, many who are volunteers, who do their jobs under tough circumstances so often and without publicity.

And we thank those in the community who do things like bring food to those first responders so they don’t have to worry about eating as they do their jobs.

We appreciate Gov. Mike Dewine and Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens coming to Proctorville last Friday to survey the damage to Fairland West Elementary and the Proctorville Volunteer Fire Department and seeing if there is something Columbus can do to help with the wind damage.

It would be far easier to sit at the State Capital building and read reports than to make the trip to check out the situation first hand.

Let’s hope that there are resources available to help all those that suffered damage on that fateful day.