It's been a few days since the strongest tornado to hit Erie County in decades.

The EF-2 that touched down in Wattsburg didn't leave widespread damage, but for one family, the impact was devastating.

Nolan Seabury lives in the house on Knoyle Rd. that was damaged. He was going to Pittsburgh with a friend when the tornado hit Monday night. 

“My Dad calls me and, you know, he’s crying and doesn’t really know what’s going on. He just tells me, ‘Nolan, we lost everything!’” he said. 

Several barns were destroyed. Two animals were killed.

“Just to see that everything is crumbled…it’s mindblowing,” he said. 

They turned around and started calling for help.

“By the time we got back, [there were] 200 to 300 people just sitting on our property,” he said. 

One of them was John Carlson. He came back Thursday.

“They’ve got scrap piles, they’ve got equipment piles, they’ve got metal piles, they’ve got stone piles,” he said. “We’re trying to get the stuff in piles to get it hauled out.”

Volunteers spent hours removing debris on Thursday. 

“Just slowly pick our way through it. Pick through what we can hopefully salvage and repurpose for something else,” Seabury said. 

He is grateful for people’s help.

“It might have only smacked our house, but it kind of feels like it took a damper on the entire community because they’re all here to help us,” he said. 

People like Carlson. 

“It’s all about people helping people,” he said. “It’s a selfless contribution by every single person here.”

That’s why Seabury made sure everyone had something to eat and drink.

There’s still more that needs to be cleaned up before they can rebuild.

“I can’t even fathom where we would be without everybody. I just want to reiterate a hundred thousand times, thank you so much for everyone trying to help us out,” he said.