Buffalo Mourns

Buffalo has been called America's biggest small town. Although the population of the city is greater than 275,000, that figure does not include the surrounding towns and villages. I can safely say that despite the size, Buffalo, or shall I say Western New York, is fairly close knit. Therefore, the news of the crash of Continental Flight 3047 while approaching Buffalo's airport was quite disturbing to the WNY residents.

49 people perished in the crash as well as one person on the ground. So many emotions rolled through my head. First, I wanted to kiss David and Madeline and love them both to pieces. With the amount of travel David has been doing for business as well as the amount of travel that we, as a family, have been doing, I was bound to think, "That could've been us".

Next, I recognized that, because WNY is so closely knit, most residents will either know someone that was on that plane or will know someone who was directly affected by this tragedy. Sure enough, I get on Facebook and found out that the uncle of someone David used to work with was on the plane.

In the afternoon, I decided to get out of the house with Madeline to try to "unstick" my mind from thinking of this terrible accident. The roads, stores, etc were very busy today but despite this there was a strange feeling in the air, as if this tragedy weighed each of us down.

Upon coming home, I decided to call my friend, Kelly, because I guess I just needed to connect with others today. Kelly told me of her friend that lives only 300 yards away from the crash site. Kelly's friend heard the sputtering of the plane, heard the loud explosions and witnessed the 50ft wall of flames. In addition to being so close to the crash site, this friend of Kelly's also was friends with a woman (who was 5 months pregnant) that was on the flight.

Additionally, David called me late this morning. He and a coworker had to go to the airport to pick up a client that was traveling in today. The client's flight was delayed and David and his coworker had to sit in the airport (which is relatively small). As he sat there waiting, flight after flight came in and each one carried someone who lost a loved one in the crash. The sobbing that was heard with each new flight made David's wait heatbreakingly unbearable.

I am sure as the flight's manifest is released, more and more Western New Yorkers will realize a connection to someone that was lost. My heart goes out to all the victims, their families and friends. I wish there was something that I could do but all I can do is ask God to comfort those in need.