Beast brought out the best in our community
Like me, I am sure you are glad to see the back of the Beast from the East and the problems it created last week.
Freezing winds and frequent snow showers led to drivers being stranded on the M80 near Cumbernauld for hours, closed schools and nurseries, disrupted our health services, cut off communities in Forth and Endrick and the Carron Valley and made travel either impossible or dangerous.
Distribution of the Observer’s Friday edition – and other newspapers – were affected by the weather warnings that advised against all but essential travel. Apologies if you weren’t able to get your Observer that day and many thanks to the drivers who made sure it was in the shops on Saturday – and the hardy readers who ventured out to buy it.
If there was an up side to the bad weather it was in the Dunkirk spirit it generated in many communities as people volunteered to clear approaches to schools and nurseries to ensure they opened on Monday.
Care home staff , such as those at Forthbank Nursing Home in Stirling and Bannockburn’s Fairview home, deserve praise for staying overnight at their place of work to ensure those they look after didn’t suffer.
Nursing and medical staff across Forth Valley did likewise and farmers joined the road gritting operation, supplementing the hours of hard work put in by Stirling Council’s own road maintenance teams.
A debt of gratitude is also owed to the area’s mountain rescue teams who were out in the worst of the weather assisting stranded drivers on the M80, leading the hunt for a lost climber in the Ochils and clearing a path through the snow to homes in the Carron Valley.
On Friday we asked on our social media pages for readers to name those who were going the extra mile to help those caught up in the worst of the weather.
Most nominations were for kennel keeper Ann Vines, who on Friday morning walked eight miles through the snow to Bandeath Dog Shelter to ensure the dogs there wouldn’t have to spend the day alone.
Many thanks to her and all those who defied the Beast from the East.
John Rowbotham, Editor