Jack Fox of Beaumont Drive is an intermittent employee of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Neighbor Carole Parsons of Ruskin Drive is a volunteer for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.
As emergency workers, they know the value of neighborliness in a pinch.
So it's not surprising Jack ended up at the house of Carole and her husband, Steve, Saturday evening, when he became one of 4,500 Penelec customers in Blair County who lost power in a brief but violent thunderstorm.
Fox was still at the Parsons' Sunday afternoon, having spent the night to evade the hassle faced by the 77 customers in Blair County who were without power all night: how to deal with a hot and humid night minus air conditioning and fans.
Neighborliness is actually a characteristic of the Ruskin Drive neighborhood, both Fox and Parsons said.
When the storm started and rain was slicing sideways and it looked like a snowstorm with leaves blowing and then hail started falling and grew to marble size, Jack called and told Parsons to get her vehicles in the garage.
Then when his own power went out - after hearing a "big crrrack, a wood-style crack - he didn't hesitate to tell her on his cell phone, "I'm toast," in the easy expectation he'd be welcome to stay at the Parsons.
Then, when the chaos of the brief storm subsided, Parsons called around to offer her hospitality to other neighbors who might need it.
Hospitality is a tradition with her.
"I keep our guest quarters ready," she said.
To stretch a point, hospitality is a tradition in her family: Parsons is an old name in real estate in the area.
Fox saw neighborliness working on a large scale last year during a five-month FEMA stint in Alabama in the aftermath of the tornadoes that devastated many areas of the state.
"People pulled together," he said.
And while he was away, neighbors here took care of his place on Beaumont Drive, Parsons said.
This weekend's experience - on the receiving end of help - was actually Fox's second in two weeks.
He owns a house in the Washington, D.C., area, because he's moving there, and that house recently went without power for five days due to a storm.
Neighbors there shared a generator.
Even Sunday, while still waiting to go home, Fox was eager to share tips with the public:
If you have a smartphone, get the apps that give weather warnings, he said.
And if you don't have an old-style landline phone that works when your electricity goes down, get one.
"It's only about $5," Parsons said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.
