TRUMANN, Ark. — The recovery continues almost a week after a tornado tore through northeast Arkansas.
Governor Asa Hutchinson spent the day in Trumann on Thursday, Dec. 16.
The city, officials believe, got hit the hardest in Arkansas.
While the governor addressed how quickly city leaders came together to assess the damage, there's still a lot of work to be done.
Community member, Jay Paul Woods, said it's been tough to watch his town suffer through this.
"It's hard, it's really hard. When it's your family and friends, people you serve," he said.
Woods was one of many born and raised in Trumann, Arkansas, who spent the last six days helping his community.
"We want to make sure everybody that needs a meal, gets a meal — and not just one. We want them to get all they want," he said.
As a commander with the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, Woods is in charge of calling people in to work. But for this recovery, the extra help was already taken care of.
"When they got here, neighbor helping neighbor, everybody pitching in, you know, Arkansas, everybody's got a chainsaw. So you know, they all just jumped in and started working, so I didn't have to have as many teams in here," he said.
The overwhelming support is something Gov. Hutchinson noticed during his trip to Trumann on Thursday.
"It is just gratifying to see the incredible coordination of this effort to help the community and our neighbors and that's what Arkansas is about," he said.
According to FEMA, the storm damaged about 200 homes in Trumann alone.
Gov. Hutchinson believes Arkansas will meet the threshold of about $5 million to receive federal assistance, which can help public or individual damages.
"It doesn't ever cover all of the loss, but it does make a big difference in their lives," he said.
While the governor will have to wait and see if the state qualifies for that, for now, he knows the people of Trumann have each other's backs.
"The most amazing thing about people is that they're willing to disrupt their lives to help others and that, to me, is American, as it is Arkansas," he said.
The state has $10,000 set aside and is giving the money to the city of Trumann.
A good portion of those volunteers were actually teachers and students.
The school district pushed back final exams until after Christmas break.