A walk around the areas hardest hit by last week's tornadoes gives Scott Coen hope.
This is a corner in East Forest Park where a house stood before Wednesday's Tornado.This morning a crystal blue sky and bright sunshine greeted residents of Western Massachusetts.
And for most of us this week will begin like every other week as we send our children to school, and head off to work for business as usual.
That's obviously not the case for many of our friends and neighbors all over the Pioneer Valley.
I live in the East Forest Park section of Springfield, mere blocks from some of the hardest hit areas from last Wednesday's tornado.
My family took some time to walk around the hardest hit areas.
In fact on Saturday morning we bought lunch and delivered it to the workers who were clearing trees around the Cathedral High School area.
Just like a lot of our friends and neighbors, we were looking for something, anything we could do to help in the relief effort.
Another friends of mine who owns a national restoration company told me that many people hard hit by the tornado will soon find out that their homeowners insurance may not be adequate to cover the damage to their homes, only adding insult to injury in the long days ahead.
I heard good stories from residents who lost their homes this weekend. The Red Cross was out early Sunday morning delivering hot breakfasts to local residents.
I also got a call from a friend who asked for donations of food that could be dropped off at the Springfield JCC on Dickinson Street.
Rachel's Table was planning to take part in relief efforts. They always do a great job working in the local community.
And in what may turn out to be the biggest early success of the week, the Fredrick Harris School and Dryden Elementary are combining their schools for the remainder of the school year.
Dryden Elementary was destroyed by the tornado, leaving students there with no place to turn. That is until this morning.
Disasters like this bring out the best in people. What I saw in my neighborhood gave us all hope that together we'll all get through this.