Romans rally together to help those in need and those working to help

ROME, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — What was once a quiet street is no longer with the sounds of cleaning up after a tornado ripped though the neighborhood. The Rome community is offering whatever they can to help those in need and those working to help.

“We have the ability to just kind of pop up out of nowhere and feed the community hot dogs after a tornado,” President of the Rome Rotary Club Cameron Stewart said.

The Rome Rotary Club gathered outside of the Rome Polish Home, cooking up hotdogs on their portable grill and handing out waters. The Rome Polish Home, like many buildings in the neighborhood, didn’t have power, but they were still offering what they could.

“The bathrooms are open to anyone that needs to use them,” Terry Pazdur, the president of Rome Polish Home, said. “I mean you got to go to the bathroom, you got to go.”

Power lines were dangling, roofs blown right off, but most of all, trees were down, just about everywhere.

“All these major trunk pieces you see there were three trees. One got cut down. Initially, that was already broken off,” David Vanmarter, who is helping a friend of a friend clean up, said. “Then we cut a big one down, and it fell into this tree and came down nice and smooth here.”

Branches and parts of trees piled about six feet high on the curb, raising the question, where does all of the brush go? One of the sites is a lot across from the Rome Amtrack station where the massive pile is more than 12 feet tall and dozens of feet long.

“Something like this happens and it kind of humbles you in a way because you’re like, ‘Wow, I got lucky.’ But a lot of other people didn’t, so I would not have felt right just sitting around doing nothing,” Vanmarter said.

With all the leftover trees and branches…

“Help your neighbor out, clean your yards. Rome will be back up and running,” Pazdur said.

It’s going to take a lot of help.

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