Barbara Mass, an Upper Dublin High School teacher, helped organize the cleanup efforts for hundreds of homes in Fort Washington following the destruction that Hurricane Ida had left behind, writes Beccah Hendrickson for 6abc.

She and “The Chainsaw Gang” are continuing to clear the area even three weeks after the tropical storm has fizzled out.

“We really didn’t understand that this is a tornado,” said Mass. “We live in Pennsylvania. We didn’t know what was coming.”

Barbara Mass said she finally realized how bad it had been when she went into her backyard after the storm had passed and saw that two big trees were knocked down.

“We chopped it up and put it to the curb and then my neighbors across the street, the Longs, I was like, ‘Hey can we do theirs?'” she said.

This day-long effort then morphed into a Facebook group that currently has more than 5,000 volunteers who want to help their community.

“It just started to grow, and then it started to grow even bigger, and then people’s houses who we helped, they joined in,” said Barbara Mass. She says “the magic happens” from her kitchen table, where she helps coordinate the clean-up efforts, and says the “community a stronger, more positive place to be.”

Read more about Barbara Mass and the Upper Dublin clean-up efforts from Hurrican Ida in 6abc.