Today the Washington Daily News returns to its “normal” front-page layout, with the usual collection of local news and sports on Page 1A.

But, for many of our readers, life hasn’t returned to normal, and won’t for some time.

Hurricane Irene turned a lot of lives upside down in this community.

Businesses and schools were closed before, during and after the storm, power was out in many places and, as of Friday, still hadn’t been restored for some county residents.

Homes were destroyed or rendered temporarily uninhabitable.

And, as Irene pulled away from our coast, friends, family and neighbors pulled together to help one another come back from the worst hurricane this county has seen in at least a generation.

Yes, our front page is back to normal.

For many people, life goes on.

But we can’t forget what Irene did to many of our people, some of whom had to swim for their lives as their houses were battered and flooded under the force of Irene.

We all have to keep the storm’s victims in mind and keep lending a hand wherever and whenever we can as the recovery continues.

In the coming days we’ll do our best to keep telling the post-Irene stories that you want to read. We hope in doing so we’ll keep you informed about how our community is coming back.