ST. LANDRY PARISH — Nada Manuel has always taken pride in her yard. She moved into her home in the late 1970s and spent more than 40 years cultivating it.
But a tornado ransacked her property, dropping centuries-old trees and leaving Manuel to pick up the pieces.
"A tornado hit me Saturday night about 10 o'clock, I think it was. It came through fast and left fast, which I'm glad because sometimes they'll sit in an area for a while, and it can be much more dangerous and destructive," Manuel said.
Manuel's son-in-law made a post to Facebook that came across his friend Brandon Vanderberg's timeline.
"I saw the post last Sunday during a Mardi Gras parade, and I reached out to him, and I asked him if he needs some help. He said yes. So I sent a text message to several of my friends as part of the group, and they're like, 'Hey, if we can make it Friday, let's make it happen,'" Vanderberg said.
Vanderberg and his coworkers at Proctor and Gamble and with the Native American Network went out and cleared Manuel's yard in just one morning.
"Whenever you come here, and you see people like Ms. Manuel here, who we know that she couldn't come out here and do this type of work, but she takes a lot of pride in her yard, and it makes us feel good," Vanderberg said.
Manuel said no one feels better than her.
"I think it's wonderful, and you know that's the way it used to be all the time where I'm living at, when we first moved here, we moved here in 1979, and people don't neighbor like they used to... It's a difference, and it's nice to know that there are still people out there that can do things like this for people they don't know," Manuel said.
