NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Residents in North Nashville are beginning to pick up the pieces after the NWS said an EF-2 tornado ripped through the community this week.

“It was a really terrifying experience. It didn’t last that long at all. You heard the sirens go off on your phone and then the sirens went off outside, you had 30 seconds and it was already over the top of your head,” said North Nashville resident Jeffery Patterson. “By that time I’d already gotten my mom and her husband in the tub. As soon as I heard the first tree fall I just had to fall in the tub with her.”

Patterson said when he went outside, he heard people screaming near their home off Underwood Street. So, he and his neighbor went house to house helping to rescue people from their homes.

On Wednesday, the community had broken trees, broken power poles, downed power lines, damaged roofs, and homes with windows blown out.

Volunteers walked around clearing debris from properties in North Nashville and giving out food and water.

“It’s horrifying. This community- there are some pretty impoverished people that live here and just knowing that a lot of people don’t have insurance so they don’t have a way to pay for the coverage of their home, yeah, it’s really, it’s bad,” said Rachel Inman with the UT College of Social Work.

Patterson grilled hot dogs in his front hard, offering them for free to his neighbors. He said volunteers have been very helpful with the cleanup process.

“They’ve been coming by every 30 minutes to see if we need help. They have free equipment at the church – at Lee Chapel – free chainsaws to borrow,” Patterson said. “It was a terrifying experience but we are blessed, everybody is alive, we are still in good spirits, still laughing, and everybody is coming together and getting this thing done.”