Travelers find aid amid ruin
My family and I drove through the tornado-affected areas on April 28.
We had driven from Texas all night and did not listen to the weather. We were shocked as we drove through Alabama and Georgia, seeing the devastation.
We started trying to find a gas station that was open; the power was out everywhere. Finally we pulled in to a gas station in Ringgold, I think.
It was about 30 minutes from Chattanooga. We had three miles left on our gas tank and frankly, we did not know what we were going to do.
We had three children in our van and headed to Washington, D.C. My daughter saw a lady with a gas container putting gas in a car. I asked her where she got her gas; she said 30 minutes away in Chattanooga. I responded with "oh my," and she asked where I was from. I told her Texas, and she said "I will give you a gallon of gas."
I said, are you kidding, and she told me no. We found a paper funnel in the gas station.
I tried to pay this nice young lady; she would not take my cash.
I am sorry I did not get her name. I just know there was an angel walking on the earth that day. She said she was blessed that her family were all OK and accounted for. I just wanted to thank her again.
PAULA SMITH
Texas City, Texas
Become a part of video project
Regarding the eloquent and poignant descriptions by Mr. Voron Baughan of the many scenes of devastation he encountered during his commendable and appreciated service to our country and protecting our way of life (letter, May 28), it is important for generations to come to hear the real life stories of those who were there in our history.
I am on the board of directors of the Veterans of All Wars Museum located in Chickamauga, Ga. Veterans/families of all wars from the Civil War on down through all wars since have donated or loaned personal items for display.
Mr. Robert Honeycutt, the 11th man on a mission in a bombing raid, was shot down in WWII.
He started the museum and with the able help of another veteran, Mr. Bob Clark, increased the collection and started a video campaign to capture the personal histories of local/regional veterans for their families to pass down and for a local library for history students to come and know the personal accounts of the people who preserved life as we know it.
If you would like to participate, Dale Harrison, American Legion Post 214, Fort Oglethorpe, is the chair. Call 706-866-3253 for more information.
BOBBIE ALLISON-STANDEFER
Co-Chair, "When I served..." Video Project
Writer misinformed on restoring power
If the recent letter writer from Virginia were a resident of this community, we believe he would have seen a different restoration effort than what he described ,"EPB should focus on power business," May 19.
After the April 27 tornadoes, we enlisted an army of contractors and employees to restore power service as quickly as possible. A handful of workers, with expertise in fiber optics and not electric power, worked on our fiber lines.
The work they performed in no way took away from restoring power to our customers.
Once power was restored to all customers, we then focused on EPB Fiber Optics services and managed to have all services restored by May 13.
Unfortunately, there may be residents still waiting for service restoration from other area communications providers. These customers certainly aren't "waiting their turn for power to be restored" as the writer stated, since communication lines can be restrung as soon as a utility pole is set - and all poles were reset by May 7.
LACIE NEWTON
EPB
Remove physicians from 'Best of Best'
To avoid putting doctors at risk, physician categories should be removed from the Times Free Press' "Best of the Best" contest.
The rules of the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners on physician advertising state that it is an unethical and punishable offense for a physician to advertise with any claim of superiority over other physicians that cannot be substantiated.
Obviously, any doctor who advertises superiority in their specialty based on being a winner in a popularity contest such as the "Best of the Best" is in violation of that rule and subject to the consequences.
Likewise, the AMA Code of Ethics states that it is the ethical duty of fellow physicians in the community to report unethical advertising practices of other physicians, such as exemplified by the "Best of the Best" promotion.
Therefore, the Times Free Press' "Best of the Best" marketing stratagem is not appropriate for physicians and actually puts those "winning" physicians who advertise as being "the Best" in unwitting danger of jeopardizing their medical license.
Concerning physicians, the "Best of the Best" only serves to promote the Times Free Press while putting doctors' careers at risk.
To prevent potential backlash to doctors, the "Best of the Best" should not include physician categories
CHRISTOPHER W. CHASE, M.D, FACS