Sometimes it takes a major interruption of conveniences to remind us how much we owe those who went before.

We need regular reminders about how many of life’s comforts and luxuries we take for granted.

It should make us much more appreciative of the early-day Americans who usually had so little and over the long haul did so much with what they had.

Consider the millions in the eastern United States who recently were plastered by Hurricane Isabel. Property was devastated and lives were lost in the vicious storm. The federal government was totally shut down for two days in the Washington, D.C., region; areas to the south, west and north were in similarly terrible shape. Horrific flooding and tornadoes triggered by the storm complicated the rehabilitation process. The monetary loss was imponderable.

The rampaging hurricane also left millions of people without power, water, telephone service — a good majority of the comforts and conveniences that we coldly regard as entitlements.

Case in point: Annapolis, Md., site of the U.S. Naval Academy. One is inclined to consider an institution such as the navy officer training facility invulnerable, right? At one point during the storm, however, the entire waterfront of the town was as much as 10 feet under water from the rampaging Severn River. Huge sections of classrooms and laboratories at the Naval Academy were submerged. No telling how many millions, or billions, it will take to rectify this. But Annapolis was only one of thousands of hard-hit sections.

When electric power is out, few things work as they should. Water plants without large emergency generators are out of business. Telephone lines and phone connections are broken. “Boil water” orders mean little to those who have no power to operate a stove. Nobody can contact family, friends and get help when the phones are out.

Many learned this time what it means when advisers say to fill bathtubs when a storm approaches to have sufficient water to flush toilets. Other sources of standing water, such as nearby lakes or streams or even swimming pools and hot tubs were dipped into frequently to keep the sewage moving. Sanitation is compromised badly. How can firefighters combat blazes with no water?

This does not even take into account the lives lost by people driving in water-covered regions, workmen electrocuted trying to restore electricity, terminally ill people who succumb without proper care. The term “inconvenience” means little to them. They wind up with no alternatives.

Consider again the trials and tribulations that our pioneers, such as the ones who settled Lawrence in 1854, had to face and had to overcome to do all the wondrous things they did for us. They often lacked food, proper clothing, decent water, shelter — and certainly there was no such thing as “power” in those days. How in the world did people get through the mountains, forests and plains to settle places?

When they wanted or needed something, they had no Wal-Marts, Home Depots, supermarkets and such to turn to for water, batteries and packaged foods.

It should not take a Hurricane Isabel to remind us what we owe heroes and heroines of the past, but it often does. At the same time, we should seize the moment to recognize how we should appreciate what we have.