Town comes together with comfort and hope

The town of Pottstown was rocked — literally — last week when an explosion of unknown origin leveled two houses, damaged at least 10 others and horrifically killed four children and a grandmother.

Two adults — the children’s parents — were critically injured and remain hospitalized.

The area where the explosion occurred is on a steep hill just behind Pottstown High School in a close-knit neighborhood of families, young couples buying their first homes, and older folks who have lived there for years enjoying the camaraderie and small-town vibe that thrives there.

Pottstown has been described by the national and regional media who converged on the area to cover the tragedy as a “former steel town,” a place at the edge of Philadelphia (40 miles is a bit of a stretch to call an edge), a middle-class borough where everyone knows their neighbors.

The town is indeed a place of deep connection. Pottstown schools, where many of those connections begin, lost four students in this tragedy. Authorities say it could take weeks to determine the explosion cause. Its intensity suggested to observers a gas leak that sparked, but PECO has said there was no gas service to the twin homes where the explosion was centered. There are nearby gas lines and a gas main that are part of the investigation, but there are no immediate answers as to what happened.

The victims — Alana Wood, 13; Jeremiah White, 12; Nehemiah White, 10; Tristan White, 8; and their grandmother Francine White, 67 — represent unfathomable losses not only to their families but to their friends, classmates, and teachers. How do you explain to an 8-year-old that the children he joined on the playground last week are gone forever?

In this aftermath, Pottstown is left to do what it does best: Come together.

This is not a town with the divisions that plague other more well-off places. School board meetings have not been filled with unruly discussion to mask or not to mask. Pottstown schools’ COVID-19 pandemic disruption was focused instead on how to prevent hunger in the absence of school breakfast and lunch that so many families depend on. The school board and administration were consumed not with the level of online instruction being offered, but rather with how to get digital tools and internet capability in the hands of students so they could learn from home.

Despite its financial struggles, the town is not steeped in misery or resentment. Children play together; parents walk them to school or the park; neighbors talk on the sidewalk and people share ideas on how to get by. Thus, the scope of this tragedy reverberates. The connections carry through relatives, churches and preschools, asking the same questions:

How did this happen? And, how can I help?

A prayer vigil last Sunday night brought out several hundred people in an attempt to grapple with how this happened. And as for help, local foundations immediately established funds to ensure that aid to the families affected is given with efficiency and security.

In schools, counselors are on hand to help students recover and cope. The local chapter of the NAACP, alongside the American Red Cross, has been tirelessly providing meals and assistance to those displaced. First responders and home inspectors have been working around the clock at the blast scene, keeping properties secure and protecting families as they’re trying to salvage belongings.

Everyone involved is close to someone who knows someone who has suffered loss.

Pottstown schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez said last week that even as this town is hurting, the time to grieve for many will have to come later. Today’s focus must be on the victims and their families. The question for now is, “How can I help?”

Donations may be made online at Community Network’s office at 724 N. Adams St., No. 203, Pottstown, PA 19464, with Pottstown Explosion Support Fund in the memo line. The Foundation for Pottstown Education is collecting donations to go directly to the families. Go to https://foundationpottstowned.org/donate/ and in the notes section, you can indicate your support for families affected by writing “Pottstown 526 Emergency Fund.”