At this time of year, when the bats and balls have been put away and the long, hot summer is upon us, the cry goes up.

I can’t wait for football season to get here.

There’s no doubt that this season definitely needs to get here, sooner.

The South has been natural disaster central for much of the spring. The vicious weather system that whipped across the region on April 27 with long-track tornadoes and laid waste to Smithville, Tuscaloosa, Ala., and other places was one blow.

The destruction was everywhere between Vicksburg and Atlanta. One section of the 15th Street area in Tuscaloosa looked as if it had been hit by a giant shotgun blast. Trees are nothing but knee-capped trunks shorn of branches and greenery. Piles of rubble are a pox on the landscape and the few surviving buildings are full of holes from wind-borne missiles flung by the winds of an EF4 tornado.

Another body blow is the Great Flood of 2011, which continues to rise as the engorged Mississippi River can no longer handle the flow of too much rain upstream.

A week ago, U.S. Highway 61 south was filled with those who rented trucks and crammed them with their possessions to escape the gurgling, unstoppable waters from Redwood, Eagle Lake and points north.

Tributaries, like the barrels of guns, flow into the interior and turn the surrounding areas into a flooded landscape favored only by wading birds and catfish. The water is consuming everything, a natural disaster in slow motion in marked contrast to the wind-borne hell in minutes unleashed by the tornadoes.

It’s enough to make one just want to stop and cry to heaven.

The whole region needs a distraction. Sports is especially good to fill the void and distract those whose daily thoughts are mired in their daily predicament.

Just like the New Orleans Saints did for those who survived the horrors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the lights of Friday night can be a saving grace.

It’s about time people were able to think about the impending quarterback race and whether their team has the tools to go far into the playoffs.

Two-a-days, rather than being a fiery anvil of pain under a merciless sun, can be a much-needed refuge for those whose houses are in pieces or are underwater.

Walt Whitman said about baseball and how it could “repair these losses and be a blessing to us.”

The same could be said about the opening of football season in the region.

It can’t get here soon enough.

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Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.