GILES COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's been about a month and a half since strong storms tore through the mid-state. For some communities, the recovery is just beginning.
In a small town in Giles County, the May 8 severe weather left two brothers devastated: one in the hospital, and the other working to rebuild their homes.
Wayne Allred says he watched from his porch as a tornado ripped off the roof of his home and destroyed his brother's mobile home just feet away.
When he rushed to see is his brother Paul was okay, he found him buried in debris.
Paul suffered a broken back, cracked ribs, and bruised lungs, but he's alive. Wayne visits him at the hospital in Huntsville every morning.
"I feel guilt because he was hurt so bad and I wasn’t," said Wayne.
While Paul is still on the road to recovery, Wayne knows he is strong and has hope he'll be able to bring him back home.
In the meantime, Wayne deals with his own struggles after the storm.
"Two months later, the pain is still there," he explained. "I washed my car the other day, and the brushes were swirling on each side, and then the fans were making the sounds of the tornado. I had to really remind myself I was in a car wash."
For now, Wayne is staying in a temporary mobile home in his backyard. He's been told he's still months away from being able to move back home.
In the future, he says he will continue rebuilding and hopes to repay all the kind neighbors in his community that have helped him and his brother.
As for you, he wants to share this message.
"I would say to anyone, you better enjoy it while you can," he said. "You are not bulletproof."
If you want to help the Allred family with rebuilding or with Paul's medical expenses, you can visit their GoFundMe.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
