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Two large pine trees blew down between the house and garage at Wes and Patti Pierson’s home in Hardwick during the May 12 storm.
They contacted Rock County Emergency Management Director Kyle Oldre about possible FEMA support but learned there wasn’t funding available.
The couple had to leave their storm mess behind when they traveled to Mayo Clinic in Rochester for Patti’s cancer surgery.
The surgery was delayed to July 27 so they returned home May 18 and learned that Oldre had made arrangements for the trees to be removed the following day.
“We had just returned from Sanford in Sioux Falls to arrange more chemo ... Well, there was an army of volunteers here arranged by Kyle to remove the trees and clean up the yard,” Wes Pierson said.
“The trees are removed to a back dump area and the yard is very well taken care of.”
He said he and Patti were very grateful for the help.
In addition to Oldre and his sons, Knute and Gunnar, volunteers included Leroy Schomacker, Kyle Hemme, Paul Aukes, Darrell Hemme, Hunter Ahrendt, Jeff Ahrendt, Tony Roos, Justis Ahrendt, Shawn Blom, Peyton Blom, Paige Blom, Kaleb Hemme, Tori Hemme, Damien Ahrendt, Michael Halsne, Brad Ahrendt, Chad Versteeg, Lowell Ahrendt, John Hemme and Keith Schmuck.