Volunteers at Green Acres Baptist Church provide free food to those without power. (Jennifer Scott/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

It’s hard to see the bright side in times of tragedy.

But if you paid close enough attention over the last few weeks in Smith County, you’d be able to see a glimmer of hope shining among the devastation — our generous community.

As this editorial is written, the sun shines on downtown Tyler with the brightest of rays. It’s a radically different view than the dark, thundering skies that have lingered over East Texas since mid-May.

Beginning May 23, storms started to roll in, impacting the entire county. We’ve experienced multiple severe thunderstorms, destructive straight-line winds, excessive rainfall and even a tornado. These storms resulted in widespread and severe damage in our community.

Our reporters were out in full force surveying the damage, taking photos and talking to affected residents. We were also reporting on really heavy news, like the untimely death of beloved Van Zandt County Commissioner Virgil Melton Jr. who tragically passed away after a tree fell on his car during the storm. These devastating headlines are just as hard for us to report as they are for you to read. All the while, our employees were affected by the storm as well. While thankfully none of us experienced major damage, several were without power for up to four days.

It was easy to keep our spirits up because everywhere we looked, we saw the community doing what our community does in times such as these — stepping up. At the same time our reporters interviewed homeowners who had trees in their homes, community members were right next to us picking up the pieces.

Bullard resident Will Ross was in Tyler to get his cattle trailer welded when he rode out the storm then answered a call for help on Facebook to help clear a tree out of a street.

“The tree fell (the night before) and no one on the street knew how long it would be before it would get cleared out,” he told Tyler Morning Telegraph reporter Jennifer Scott, who was one of the members of our small yet mighty team who was documenting the damage.

Ross picked up the chainsaw he had in his truck and went right to work, helping a resident who had a tree on her driveway and was unable to get out.

He didn’t think twice about helping someone in need. Ross is just one of hundreds of people we saw helping their neighbors — or mostly, total strangers.

That generosity and spirit to lend a hand is one of the things we love most about living and working in this community.

During storms, we’re working constantly — updating our website, sharing social media posts, sending breaking news alerts, and so on. Managing Editor Santana Wood was in her safe place at home, working in the dark on her iPhone (with a dwindling battery and no WiFi), sending an alert through our app to let readers know about a tornado warning. That’s just what we do. We want to do everything possible to keep residents informed and let them know of the resources available to them in times of an emergency. We even lift our website’s gateway (also known as a paywall) so residents can read these essential news stories for free.

While that reporting is necessary, we find it just as important to put our boots on the ground to find those stories like the one we shared about Ross, or the one we shared about Lone Star Harley-Davidson in Tyler feeding lineworkers for free Wednesday, or the story about Green Acres Baptist Church offering hot showers, a place to do laundry, and free lunches for affected residents.

A number of businesses were offering deals or free meals for linemen. Church volunteers were out trimming limbs and moving trees out of driveways. Everyday folks were responding quickly to Facebook calls for help when their neighbors needed something. Because first responders and county/city crews were inundated with emergencies and work orders, volunteers and workers from other departments pitched in to help. We saw one post about Smith County investigators and constable deputies personally clearing roadways, and that was just one of many posts like that.

While the headlines about 71,000 people being in the dark are necessary stories we’ll continue to report as long as an issue of that magnitude is impacting our community, we will also do everything we can to show you the bright spots when they’re there.

And these last few weeks, man, were they there.

It doesn’t take much to find good news amidst the tragedies. All you have to do is look.