A Welcome Solution After Sudden Destruction

Nashville, Tennessee

Cheryl and Peter Alvarado were asleep when an EF3 tornado tore through their neighborhood in Nashville, Tennessee. 

“I had heard a big boom and the lights went out on us” says Cheryl. “There was no making it anywhere.”

Peter says, “it came in so quick and we didn't have time to react. I had a big tree in the back of the house, and it fell on top of the house. We just stood there, you know, and it's hopefully the house didn't fall down on us.”

Insurance will cover the damage to the house, but Peter had to clean up the debris and fallen trees.

Peter says, “There's not enough hours in the day for me to get out and do it by myself. People are wanting to charge me nine to ten thousand dollars to haul the stuff off you know, and who's got nine, ten thousand dollars?”

Then, Operation Blessing showed up with a team of volunteers to cut up trees and haul off debris.

“Operation Blessing really helped us” says Cheryl. “They came out here and did things that nobody else would do for us. They helped us get the rubbish off our yard and help us go and do what we had to do to get our life going back together.”

“Me doing it by myself with no chainsaw, no nothing, I would be here for months trying to pick at it every day” says Peter. “So with Operation Blessing, as you can see, I mean it took a lot of load off me.”

Thanks to Operation Blessing partners and volunteers, Cheryl and Peter were able to get the help they needed to take their first steps toward recovery.

Peter says, “Operation Blessing was great. They're making my life and my wife's life a lot easier to move on from this disaster.”

“You don't know how much we love y'all” says Cheryl. “I mean, if it wasn't for y'all, we would have never gotten that far. I mean we were turning to everybody and nobody was going to help us, and I’ll never forget you. You'll always be in my prayers.”