‘We never wanted to leave’: Some tornado-ravaged Greensboro homes will be replaced through city partnership with Habitat for Humanity.

Aug. 30--GREENSBORO -- For Yolanda and Kenley Harris, walking out unscathed after a third large oak tree toppled onto their single-story home was the first blessing.

The April 2018 tornado that struck East Greensboro carved its destructive path right through their property.

And they were uninsured.

The second blessing is that the home where they raised their children -- on a working- and middle-class cul-de-sac they didn't want to leave -- will be rebuilt with no upfront costs to them. They will be responsible for a no-interest mortgage once they get the keys.

"People don't believe it," said Yolanda Harris, who hopes to be back in the neighborhood by Christmas.

Theirs is the first of eight new homes to be constructed through city partners and others who have been trying to help those who lost their homes in the tornado. The storm caused $48 million in damage and left more than 20,000 households without power along a 16-mile largely residential trek.

On Thursday, workers in safety suits began clearing the structure of potentially hazardous materials before the home on Llano Court is torn down.

The city has also been involved elsewhere with the repairs to more than 60 homes -- 41 of which are complete -- and helped homeowners with insurance deductibles as high as $1,000.

"Without the partnerships that we've created with the Storm Recovery Alliance, a lot of families would not be able to repair their homes or go back to their old neighborhoods," said Stan Wilson, the city's director of neighborhood development, of the agency that is made up of 40 local agencies and city officials, and began meeting weekly.

First spotted about 5:15 p.m. April 15 near U.S. 29 and East Gate City Boulevard, the storm and its blinding rain was responsible for the death of a father and damage to more than 1,000 homes and buildings -- including three elementary schools -- as it traveled across East Market Street and East Wendover Avenue to the Reedy Fork area and into Rockingham County.

At least 37 of the 1,020 structures with storm damage were destroyed, and local officials received more than 173 applications for housing help.

"What's happening with this house is very important," said City Councilwoman Sharon Hightower, who represents a good portion of the neighborhoods damaged. "It says we haven't forgotten what took place. It says we are still at work."

The generosity is partially fueled by the concern that without help, the tornado's legacy might be of dilapidated properties in communities that were struggling to rebound even before the storm left a tangle of light poles and wires across a large swatch of residential streets. And since the storm, some out-of-area landlords who got insurance checks for the damages have boarded up properties without any improvements 36 months later, Hightower said.

The Harrises, who both work, said they just needed help out of the havoc the tornado wreaked.

The afternoon the storm hit, Kenley Harris was watching the NASCAR race on television while his wife -- disinterested ever since her beloved Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired -- was napping in a bedroom.

The front door was open as a storm whipped up outside. All of a sudden, Kenley Harris saw their large metal flag pole lying across the ground in their yard.

He woke Yolanda.

"I said, 'Ain't no way that flag pole down unless someone came in the driveway and hit it,' " Yolanda Harris recalled. "It's six feet in the ground and surrounded by concrete."

Going to the door to see for herself, Yolanda Harris was knocked to the ground by the impact of the first two trees falling out the house, knocking the structure off its foundation.

Then came a third tree, leaving a gaping hole in the roof and left wooden beams exposed.

"It could have taken us both from here," Kenley Harris said.

Trees and debris had littered nearby Gate City Boulevard with traffic at a near-standstill.

The first few days, they toughed it out without electricity, not having money to stay in a hotel.

An elderly aunt ran into Hightower and asked her what the city was going to do to help people, and Hightower pointed them to an information center set up nearby at Willow Oaks. Hightower also sent a volunteer electrician who had been working with her over to the Harrises home, but he couldn't help them. The power box had been knocked off the house and was scattered somewhere in the brush.

While the tornado tore up their community, it also brought a spotlight on the struggles in their part of the city.

East Greensboro has the city's highest poverty rates and the largest decrease in home ownership in recent years, although several multi-million dollar projects connected to N.C. A&T have taken root during that time. Storm photos reflected the anguish of families caught in the middle of it.

Their plight also struck a chord with people in Greensboro and beyond.

After declaring East Greensboro a disaster area, FEMA mostly offered low-interest loans in the affected neighborhoods, where income is half the county average and it has a high number of people in homes that were uninsured or underinsured.

But something significant also took place, that would work in the favor of those who had been displaced.

Early on, even as intersections were being cleared of trees and webs of power lines, donations started pouring into city-endorsed funds that would raise more than $800,000 to help people in need of emergency assistance. And the Storm Recovery Alliance had brought together major emergency-assistance providers such as the Salvation Army.

Out of it came the city partnership with nonprofit groups like Habitat for Humanity of Greater Greensboro, which is rebuilding the Harrises home.

"Some of us were out there that same night helping to tarp homes," said Ruthie Richardson-Robinson, Habitat's chief operating office, of the early days. "We felt like partners anyway, even though it wasn't official."

The city also has access to housing bond money and the funds raised to help East Greensboro, among other programs. Habitat -- one of several nonprofits bidding on rehab and replacement work -- also had efficiency programs to build homes at a lower cost for people who might not otherwise be able to afford them. And as with the construction of other Habitat homes, the Harrises, as homeowners, will have to put in "sweat equity" and attend financial literacy classes.

"When the tornado hit, it revealed that so many people were living, but just surviving," Hightower said of families living paycheck-to-paycheck and not able to do the work on their own.

"I love the fact that we got creative with the Harrises," Hightower said.

While trying to live in the damaged home, Kenley Harris caught double pneumonia before the city tested the air quality and condemned it.

Before the couple was approved for the partnership with Habitat, the city put the Harrises up in a hotel.

Afterward, Habitat put them in a townhouse owned by the nonprofit that wasn't occupied and gave them a $2,500 credit with the Habitat ReStore for furniture they will move into their new home once it's finished.

The Harrises have already picked paint colors and have approved a design where the new home will face the cul-de-sac they live on, just like the rest of their neighbors.

"We just never wanted to leave here," Kenley Harris said of the neighborhood. "The storm was bad, but the city and everyone working with the city, helped us tremendously."

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 336-373-7049 and follow @nmclaughlinNR on Twitter.

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