May 31, 2008 8:31 pm US/Central
Hugo Tornado Cleanup Gets Outpouring Of Volunteers
HUGO, Minn. (WCCO) ―
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The soccer team worked alongside members of the Hugo Lions, a local church group, a man from Medtronic and some neighbors.
CBS
More than 750 volunteers spent the day in Hugo picking up what's left of dozens of homes after a deadly tornado. Hugo city officials said the volunteers worked so hard, the crews cleared everything that had been planned.
White Bear Lake High School Junior Ashley Swanson came out to help with her soccer team. All of them were surprised to see the extent of the damage.
"It doesn't matter if you know the person or not. It's just helpful for everyone to get together to get the work done as a team," she said.
They picked up debris at homes and separated it into piles along the curb. Heavy equipment operators will remove that debris Saturday and Sunday night.
The girls worked alongside members of the Hugo Lions, a local church group, a man from Medtronic and some neighbors. Adam Taylor and his wife live a few homes away. They had closed on their home two days before the tornado hit.
"We're just thankful. I mean honestly, our house, we had minor damage to the siding and the roof, and 200 feet away we've got houses off their foundations. So we're just trying to give back and help out everybody in the neighborhood since we were kind of lucky," he said.
The volunteers worked on homes that homeowners had already had a chance to go through. Even so, they found a wedding album and a baby book at the bottom of one home's debris. They packed it up in a plastic bag and left it for the family. By the time they finished, the entire home was cleared of any debris.
"We hope whatever we do here just makes their life easier in this time of... whatever you want to call it, it's just a bad time" said Rusty Pastorius of the Hugo Lions. "It's just a bad time."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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