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'Helping people here that need it more than we do': Kentucky students serve in Americus after surviving tornado back home

Last week's western Kentucky EF3 tornado almost canceled their trip.

AMERICUS, Ga. — "Having a group like young people like these that came all the way down from their own disaster zone is inspirational," David Snell, president and co-founder of The Fuller Center for Housing.

Friday morning, Snell watched Kentucky students take their construction skills and put them to work in Sumter County. We went to see the action for ourselves; and we talked with a couple of students to learn why they came down after their town got hit by the worst tornado in the state's history.

11 students came down from Bowling Green, Kentucky to Americus. For part of the week, they worked on resealing a home's roof. It's actually one of three houses they've worked on this week.

Autumn Seely loves helping others. She is one of the 11 Western Kentucky University students giving back to strangers in Sumter County.

"Life is already harder than it is. Your home needs to be safe and sound so you can sleep well at night," Seely said.

The group has been working with The Fuller Center for Housing to serve three families who need house repairs. They're mostly working on exterior finishes, like painting, patchwork, and sealing roofs, but a week ago, Autumn was sitting inside her dorm bracing for a tornado.

"We were watching the news station and then all of the sudden, it just went out, because the news station got hit. It was terrifying," Seely said.

Last week's western Kentucky EF3 tornado almost canceled their trip. Tommy Rhodes says they decided to come as planned because they understood where they were needed.

"In Kentucky, we can't help at the moment. We need professionals to do that," Rhodes said. "The work that we aren't doing is not just work. It's not just something. We're not just building houses, we are building houses for people, and that's the most important thing, because back home, a lot of people lost that."

Seely also said, "When we get back, we will definitely be doing a lot more work in Bowling Green, but for right now, we are helping people here that need it more than we do now."

They head back to Kentucky Saturday, but at some point, the Fuller Center will reunite with them to help rebuild Kentucky.

The will return with disaster relief gift cards from folks in Americus. Western Kentucky University professor and group leader Bryan Reaka was touched by the kind gesture.

"That's the first time that I had that, and that's kind of overwhelming as well, to be thankful for this community, for being supportive to us," Reaka said.

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