Holiday Specialties: No Pancakes For Irene

Uncle Bill's Pancake House in Avalon New Jersey

In a stressed out time it is nice to see some of us keep our great sense of humor. I grew up around the same time Bill O’Hara’s sons and daughter I briefly knew each one growing up in the King Of Prussia, Pennsylvania Area in the mid to late seventies. Mr. O’Hara founded the Uncle Bill’s Pancake House Restaurants in the South Jersey Shore Towns from Cape May to Ocean City New Jersey. These restaurants are still owned and operated by the members of the O’Hara family. Somehow I could imagine Mr. O’Hara himself painting NO PANCAKES FOR IRENE on the plywood as he boarded his restaurants with plywood.

No region likes to make the news let alone vacate their homes and businesses. However, we have learned as a society from our mistakes as the rebuilding process which is still underway in the Third Ward of New Orleans. What we found in the wake of Irene, Irene was certainly not the devastating storm Katrina was, none the less as a society we were better prepared for Irene than during Katrina.

As a society we have learned so much from Hurricane Katrina. It is good to see in the wake of the clean up after Irene’s exit how we have grown as a society. As much as we criticize the present leadership we the majority, have followed direction without a hitch. As we deal with the flood waters in our states we can be proud as a society how little life was lost out of such a huge storm and put our hearts out to the few families that lost loved ones as a result of circumstance instead of just plain defiance. However, I also do believe those who stayed in their homes had the right to do so if they totally believed they were safe and also understood there would be no emergency services provided to them if they were in trouble.

From Ocean City Maryland (Fox News Washington D.C.)

What would this storm have to do with Labor Day? It is hard to get Katrina out our minds and it was just the week before Labor Day six years ago while I was at the Jersey Shore with my family at the time. Katrina will be the example for a generation of what not to do in a natural emergency as well as in our lifetime. We as a society lowered our standards by not being better prepared for Katrina with the technologies we had back then let alone today and it seems we certainly learned our lesson with the result in Irene. Our family watched many of the rescue updates of Katrina and the mistakes with the devastation are still hard forget even though New Orleans once again is a thriving city.

Yes, the conditions could have better on the East Coast during Hurricane Irene. Those conditions could have been far worse also. Some people feel we as a society we over reacted with Irene. If Irene was the storm they were originally predicting when it was in the Bahamas those individuals who criticized could have been fitted for a body bags with no one else to blame but themselves. As we found with Katrina an ounce of prevention is worth a world of cure. It is tough to see the devastation in the Carolinas and Virginia let alone the flooding from the Carolinas through New England. However, it is a true testament to us all how we work together and look after each other. We certainly have learned a lot from Katrina. I know as volunteers we go as a nation to other Nations to help those in an emergency but when we look at domestic problems we seem to have a new vision of each other in emergency situations.

When you look at the East Coast from Maryland to New England except for a tornado in Lewis, Delaware the damage from this storm was not as severe on the coastline as it could have been. As I speak as the masses are headed back to their vacation spots to savor what is left of their holiday weekend. All we needed was Irene to remind us of Katrina to take the time to think of someone who has been affected by Katrina. In your thoughts or prayers this week support those are being effected by Irene. There are still large number of individuals, families and businesses that have been displaced by this storm. When we have a disaster around a holiday it seems to take the excitement out of that holiday. So Irene NO PANCAKES FOR YOU because it is nice to see the spirit of good people and their sense of humor take over until the next better day. The Next Holiday!

Uncle Bill's Pancake House in Cape May

(As seen in the above Video)

For the Uncle Bill’s Pancake House Website and Locations Please Click Here!

The Picture of No Pancakes For Irene came from Save Jersey.com Click Here!

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