The work has only begun for East Texas residents affected by Saturday's devastating tornadoes, as homeowners in some of the areas hit hardest start to rebuild.
Edward Doughtery of Emory is one of the many homeowners that must now begin that mending process.
He says he isn't wasting any time.
"We're trying to catch up, but we have to face reality here. Here is what we've got to do and that's what we're doing," Doughtery said.
Family and friends came to help salvage anything they could.
Doughtery said he and his wife took shelter Saturday night, expecting only thunderstorms.
"Laid down on the floor, you've got a closet here, you've got another closet right there, you've got another bathtub running that way right along there, so this was our area for thunderstorms, not tornadoes. We weren't expecting that," Doughtery said. "Next thing we know, we felt the rain hitting us, we knew the roof was gone."
After it passed, they struggled to find a way out.
"You couldn't go this way, you couldn't go this way. The only way we could go was through this door here and we went to that window over there."
They crawled over piles of debris and through the window, into the arms of firefighters waiting on the other side.
But as the rebuilding process begins, Doughtery said he's just thankful for the help.
"We've had a lot of help. We've had a lot of people here. It's been very good."