Heidi Alexander: “on Wednesday I traveled to Greene and Washington Counties in Upper East Tennessee--up near Virginia and North…”

“on Wednesday I traveled to Greene and Washington Counties in Upper East Tennessee--up near Virginia and North Carolina--to visit with the victims of tornadoes that swept across our State on April 27 and to see firsthand how the recovery is going. What I found was what I expected to find. In Washington County and Greene County, the citizens are not complaining. They are cleaning up, and they are helping each other. I also found out there are some things that still need to be ironed out, but so far the recovery from a devastating disaster is going well in East Tennessee. The real work is being done by people affected by those storms and by volunteers, and I think it says that Tennesseans are doing what Tennesseans usually do. I first met with Alan Broyles, who is the mayor of Greene County, and Bill Brown, who is director of Greene County's Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency. Seven people lost their lives in Greene County. We visited the Camp Creek and the Horse Creek communities. We saw many of the homes that have been completely leveled, and debris was still being removed. We saw one home where a couple--the Harrisons had been helping neighbors into their basement when the tornadoes swept through and killed both Mr. and Mrs. Harrison, but spared the lives of the neighbors in the basement. There were two crosses there next to what was left of the basement structure of the home.…”