As you flip through your phone, you see more and more people trying to capture a moment to go internet famous or viral. An accident, a storm, an incident.

The person capturing the video posts it and they get likes and shares, but nothing else comes of it.

But there are also smart people who listen to emergency officials and run from the danger, not stay and capture it.

In Iberia Parish, residents did the latter.They knew the tornado was coming, and thanks to technology, almost exactly where it was coming. They left their homes and businesses.

The images of the Iberia Medical Center’s professional building with the beautiful mirror windows damaged was indelible enough to become one of the most popular images of tornado damage being sent out by media services across the nation.

The Iberia Parish Sheriff Office’s aerial photos were dramatic and showed the damage and the path of destruction.

After a few hours, we learned around 60 homes were damaged, some for good, some temporary, but all enough to keep residents out. There was also damage to the medical arts building.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards came in on a U.S. Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk Pilot helicopter and saw the exact place the tornado touched down in a cane field and the helicopter flew the line of destruction through Southport to the medical center.

He shook his head in amazement and gave a number, 16.

From the 60 homes damaged, there were 11 injured. He was impressed that residents knew to get away from danger.

“They said there is a tornado coming and take shelter immediately and this is what you have to do,” Edwards said during his visit here on Thursday. “I will tell you we can be very thankful here in Iberia Parish that there was no loss of life. We did have a number of individuals, 16 or so, who went to the hospital for treatment and only one required an inpatient stay and hopefully that individual will go home today.”

Equally impressive was the response time. New Iberia Mayor Freddie DeCourt thought he was going to be first on scene when he jumped in a chief’s vehicle, but other first responders were already in action.

Edwards touched on that as well, and had a chance to thank first responders and the individuals who lead each department in Iberia Parish. He had a chance to thank Iberia Medical Center CEO Dionne Viator for dealing with the damage, treating community members and staff and keeping the ER doors open the entire time.

And Edwards did all of this greeting our community leader by their first name. This wasn’t a political stop, these weren’t people he was trying to impress. It was the opposite. The work of leaders in our parish have impressed the state leadership.

Finally, Edwards thanked the heroes who woke up that morning without that title. The community members and neighbors who dropped everything to help. Who left their own damage to help the next neighbor who had more damage.

“I’d like to thank responders and all of the people who were just neighbors to one another,” Edwards said. “Not all of them have a title, not all of them are public servants, but they saw a neighbor in need and they went and helped. They continue to do that.”

The Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities and other faith-based volunteer organizations were helping. Businesses donated pizza to water.

“We are 10 days before Christmas and we have a lot of people all over the state whose lives are not what they thought they would be at this point and that can be very, very traumatic. In addition to just losing your home or the place that you work is not able to operate, all of that is going on,” Edwards said of two days traveling the state to assess damage.

There are a lot of families who are without just before Christmas. But our community won’t let that last long at all.

JOHN ANDERSON is the editor of the Daily Iberian)