We are not talking about Howard Mitchell’s wonderful panorama of flooded farmland, an image that is without doubt one of beauty. No, we are talking about the people caught up in the flood drama.

When choosing the story for our front page, we couldn’t go past the tale of two Sussex Inlet residents, one of whom helped an old man who couldn’t get to the chemist to have his script filled. It was a simple act of kindness that spoke volumes about our community and how, without thought, we come the aid of others less fortunate.

Robert Crawford’s story and photograph were emblematic of the spirit of generosity we have as a community when facing adversity.

We were struck, too, by the calmness that followed the flood, among people who faced the terrific burden of cleaning out homes, garages and yards. There was very little complaint – just a determination to get on with life as soon as possible.

And we were incredibly grateful to our readers, who throughout Wednesday helped us tell the story with their photos and information. It was a shining example of the community and the local paper working as one to get the news out to everyone. Everyone in the field who used their smartphones to send us photos joined the journalistic challenge.

The interest in what readers had seen and shared was reflected in our online audience on Wednesday. Our website had more than 550,000 page views, which broke all records for a single day. Your photos were one of the most popular stories, which shows how important you, our readers, are when a big story breaks.

And it shows more. That when we are confronted by a large-scale emergency such as the one we have just come through, we are all in it together.