KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — People in the Sunbright community are recovering after a tornado touched down. It was an EF-1, packing winds more than 100 miles an hour, according to the National Weather Service. It ripped through Sunbright Tuesday evening.
No one was seriously hurt in the tornado, but many homes were damaged.
That's why some community members said they decided to step in and ease one stressor as people deal with the cleanup. Brenda Jennings and Yolanda Freels both live in Sunbright. They spent the days following the tornado cooking and giving out food.
"Cooking and serving food for people, and just making sure that the workers and making sure they've got something to eat and take a little break from cleaning up, and anybody in the community that needs a meal," said Jennings.
Both women said they're not originally from the area, but they wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
"It's a small community and you just pitch in when something bad happens, you just, everybody jumps in," said Freels. "There's no questions, you know, you just do it. And we went through this last year. So here we go again."
Jennings said she got involved because she knew the mayor and wanted to help out.
"Knowing the mayor, and just before that, when we first moved here and all, just hearing other people talk about the beautification or there's things that I got involved in," said Jennings. "I always try to get involved in help, and she knows that she can call us and count on us to help. It's just a lot of word of mouth to they'll say, 'Well, I need somebody to help serve meals.' We're always there and do what we can and, I mean, it may be the little things, but to people, it's a big thing for them."
And they weren't the only ones serving food. The Knoxville branch of the Rapid Relief Team came out to feed people helping too.
"When we have a tornado nearby, we'll go see if we can do anything to help," said David Holt, second in command at the Knoxville branch. "And what we mostly do is, we'll serve meals to recovery workers."
Congressman Chuck Fleischmann (R - TN) said the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency is expected to be in the area on Friday to assess the damage.