MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Adding insult to injury, Friday’s rain did not make the cleanup efforts any easier in neighborhoods and towns ravaged by this week’s tornado.
Driving through neighborhoods in Parkway Village, tarps can be seen covering the majority of homes, and many people were working Friday to try to get things back to normal.
People working to protect what they can as rain poured onto Parkway Village.
“Right now we’re just helping out any way that we can; fixing up their houses,” Jack Cooley said. “And making sure more water doesn’t get in to said houses.”
Cooley’s team with Service Master was cleaning up after the catastrophe.
While his team is trained in handling situations like this, he admitted the rain doesn’t make things any easier.
“I mean, it is pretty hard,” he said. “Especially with the fact that almost every house on this block has a tree in it or a branch on the roof. So it’s either small leaks or completely just whole surface areas just demolished.”
Lincoln Harvey was dealing with his own mess down the street.
“We got it tarped off so the rain don’t get in,” Harvey said. “It’s been a disaster. I’ve got a lot of rental properties. I’ve got two of them hit: one in Frayser and one here.”
But he knew things could be worse. The City of Memphis announced Friday afternoon that 41 of the 47 buildings at the Cottonwood Apartments were damaged, and many of the families are no longer able to stay at the complex.
And as the rain continued to come down Friday, Cooley’s team continued to work.
“Temperatures are slowly dropping, so it’s definitely getting harder,” Cooley said.
The property owner at the apartment complex and people living there are working to find other housing arrangements.
