Update on Coyote Attacks

This was the subject line of an email we received from our Mayor. It marked one of the strangest weeks our town has experienced in recent memory,

On Monday, our schools went into lockdown as a man with a gun was on the loose after killing his girlfriend in a nearby town.

On Wednesday, there were reports of multiple coyote attacks that injured five and killed a small dog.

On Friday, a storm with high winds whipped through the town, knocking down trees, damaging property, and resulting in hundreds of families without power.

If you were a child in this town it meant that your shades were drawn in your classroom on Monday.  An adult escorted you to and from school each day. You weren’t allowed to walk to school or go outside for recess all week. School was canceled one day and sent you home early another due to the conditions. Some had no heat or electricity for a week.

There will always be scary things in the world. This week it happened to a man with a gun, rabid coyotes, and live wires.

At the same time, it has been said that whenever something bad happens, you will always see helpers looking to do good.

This week there were teachers keeping kids calm in the class, people from the police and fire department searching the woods for coyotes, and the public works team sawing and removing trees to clear the way for vehicles and a restoration of power. Our tax dollars were certainly hard at work.

Beyond what people were doing is what they were saying. The Mayor and Superintendent kept us regularly informed. Citizens offered support for their neighbors in the form of shelter, showers and charging stations.  And, of course, parents walked the fine line of helping their children make sense of the real dangers while making sure they felt safe and protected.

So on one level, it was undoubtedly a very, very strange week.  At another, it was a community working together exactly as we would hope and expect them to during difficult times.  In a word – acting normal.

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