Local group dedicated to cleanup efforts weeks after storms hit

IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. — Damaging storms have rolled through the Charlotte area in the past few weeks, including an EF-2 tornado that hit last week in Iredell County.

Cleanup from storms can take weeks and one local group is dedicated to helping homeowners recover.

A massive tree still sits in Maxine Mitchell’s backyard after the EF-2 tornado ravaged the Cool Springs community.

“It’s an experience I will never forget,” Mitchell said.

Neighbors have come together to help her with the cleanup, but others haven’t been as fortunate.

“It looks like a war zone,” Emily Huffman, a volunteer with Police and Community Together, or PACT, said.

PACT helps to strengthen other organizations to focus on cleaning up and rebuilding the community.

“A lot of people in this community want to help. They just don’t know where to bring it to,” Huffman said.

There is still a lot of cleanup to do. Channel 9 saw trees scattered over a home and a front yard on Swann Road, and just up the street, there were trees down near a barn on Fifth Creek Road.

“This is a community effort and come together to, you know, take care of the family members that have already been displaced right now,” said J.D. Williams, president of PACT.

PACT is looking for volunteers as well as donations to help families that are still dealing with the aftermath of the storms.

“We’re going to try and clean up the debris so our family members can get back home and make some kind of peace in what is going on in their lives,” Williams said.

A new concern is the possibility of more downed trees because the ground is saturated from recent heavy rain and strong wind gusts could cause trees to easily come crashing down.

Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com: