Hopefully all of you have survived the weekend blizzard without incident. A few North Boroughs residents remained without power as late as Monday morning, but for the most part there was no serious damage to report.

Which is not to say that the storm did not require a massive community effort on all levels.

While most of us were sitting on our couches watching television Friday night, police, firefighters and street crews were running nonstop from one call to the next. One after another, and sometimes two or three at a time, the calls poured in. They responded to reports of stranded motorists, downed trees and power lines, and transformers blowing. They shut down roads when necessary, cut up trees when they could, and never for a minute stopped plowing and salting to try to keep ahead of this record-breaking snowfall.

Then came Saturday afternoon, and a new section of the community took over. We began digging out. Neighbors helped neighbors, taking shifts at shoveling the heavy snow, sharing snowblowers, protecting newly-excavated parking spaces, and coming together as neighborhoods to try to find some way to dispose of much more snow than old municipal streets were designed to handle.

It's going to take a while to finish the job, especially with more snow expected this week. And the novelty of the blizzard is quickly wearing off. Just remember to be patient and know that everyone is doing their best to get us all through it.