CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) -- The City of Clarksville has seen an overwhelming number of volunteers eager to help with tornado relief, so much so that they were asked to pause cleanup efforts.
Volunteer coordinators are eager to get back to work and plan to resume cleanup on Thursday.
On Monday evening, Clarksville-Montgomery County officials asked for a chance to remove debris from area roadways.
“The county told us we did two weeks' worth of work in a day, which is amazing, blows our minds. So they had to do a stop so they could get all of the debris out,” Mosaic Church Next-Gen Pastor Aron Maberry said.
The Mosaic Church quickly became an epicenter for recovery efforts after a tornado struck just 300 yards from their front door.
“If you would have asked me on Saturday morning, 'I need you to get a half a million dollars' worth of resources in place and a thousand volunteers by Monday morning,' I would have said, 'That's impossible, are you crazy?'” Mosaic Church Senior Pastor Anthony Daley said.
After putting out the call for help, the response was overwhelming. On the first day alone, the church had more than 1,000 volunteers show up.
"Currently, our count is 2,122 volunteers have come through our doors since Sunday,” Maberry said.
After Monday’s response, Mosaic Church agreed to pause cleanup until Thursday. However, they were eager to get back to work with so many volunteers ready and willing to help. In the meantime, those wanting to help prepared more than 4,000 meals on church grounds and distributed supplies to storm victims.
"You have 1,000 people show up, the momentum you have, we are excited, we have people on lists ready to go to deploy, so we're excited to get back out there.”
One of those volunteers is a home builder from Pennsylvania who said he felt called to assist after seeing a TikTok of the storm’s aftermath. He jumped in his truck and headed west for Tennessee, even without an exact plan in place.
“I'm here to help and God will provide for me to get home and everyday he gives me a shelter and food and everything right now,” Chad Crowe said.
Besides debris, traffic has also caused congestion on roadways. Moving forward, volunteers are asked to show up either to Mosaic or Life Point Church and shuttle to areas needing assistance. Contractors wanting to help are also asked to check in at Mosaic Church and get a pass to go out into damaged areas.
Despite putting in nearly 60 hours so far this week and even some nights without sleep, Mosaic Church leaders are committed to seeing recovery through.
“It's been a very busy week, but every story is like fuel poured into your soul and you just find energy to continue, just out of that," Daley said. “It's been the best message we've ever preached since we've been here. It's given us an opportunity to love in action and not just words of encouragement.”