Have you ever noticed how heroes are never around until someone is about to plummet to their certain death?

These heroes usually just walk around blending in with the average Joe or Jane. We had the opportunity to see some heroes when the lights went out. We weren't plummeting, but the temperature inside our house was. Our house was dark, cold and quiet. After a few hours without power, the novelty and romance wore off when our house's internal temperature dropped into the low 40s.

We had the opportunity (along with our side of the 500 blocks of Locust Street, Pine and the odd side of Maple) to learn to truly appreciate the kindness of our neighbors and the hard work of the Johnson City Power Board repairmen.

Heroes of Compassion
Our neighbors provided meals, shelter and opened their houses for overnight stays. These are just a few of the benefits of living with wonderful people in a tight knit neighborhood.

Heavy Lifting Heroes
Another set of heroes that braved the weather night and day to restore power to over 72,000 people in Johnson City. I spoke with one of the communication team that fielded thousands of calls helping to track outages and prioritize the work.

A New Tool - Twitter
There's a new tool available that helps people know what's going on with the Power Board during outages and other emergencies -- Twitter. It was a great help for our family to make plans and adapt to the current situation without clogging up the Power Board's phone lines. Check out the JCPB's latest tweets here.