This weekend was not an easy one for a lot of people in our community. The clock had just rolled over to Saturday morning and our sports editor Ernest and I were still at the office getting the sports section to press when the news of what turned out to be a devastating bus crash on Interstate 20 first came across the scanner. As most of you know by now, that crash took the lives of seven people and injured more than 30 others.

When I finally pulled back into my driveway around 4 a.m., I didn’t know a ton more than I did when I started, but I knew it was bad. I also knew that as tired as I was, plenty of first responders were nowhere near being finished with the work at hand and would likely be physically, mentally and even spiritually exhausted by the time the scene was cleared. No matter how many times you go to the scene of an accident that has claimed lives, it never stops taking something out of you, especially when young people are involved.

Fast forward a few hours later and I think I had spoken to everyone from Board of Supervisors President Kelle Barfield to Vicksburg Fire Chief Derrick Stamps and a lot of folks in between. Everyone had different information to share about how people could help the crash victims in different ways. But, what struck me as I listened was that, as the information was shared with me, not one single person mentioned that the services being provided were coming from a specific office, organization or individual. No one tried to slip in what they had done personally or even hinted at wanting credit for the work that had already been done – with the notable exception of leaders expressing thanks to the first responders on the ground. I’ve said this before about our community, but I’ll say it again: It’s not like that everywhere, folks. 

As the days have worn on, we’ve heard stories of people from all walks of life coming together to help, from hospital workers and volunteer organizations like the United Way and Good Shepherd, to ordinary citizens who dropped what they were doing  and put their lives on hold for days on end to help translate for the many Spanish-speaking victims of the crash. And that’s another thing, guys. All of this outpouring of love and support came to help absolute strangers. Not the first victim of Saturday’s crash was from our community, or even our state. And that didn’t matter in the least.

As I’m writing this, we are hard at work to bring you guys the stories of some of the people who went above and beyond this week to help those in need and we’re looking forward to being able to write something positive about something so tragic. It was a terrible few days in Vicksburg and plenty of families we’ll never meet will never be the same because of what happened here. But, plenty of other families will no doubt hear about the big hearts of the people in west central Mississippi in the days and weeks to come.

It’s moments like these that show me this community’s heart is in the right place and makes me proud to be a part of it.

Blake Bell is the general manager and executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at blake.bell@vicksburgpost.com.