The images of devastation from Oklahoma have been startling, and while it's hard to imagine what people there are going through, for the people of Goderich there is a strong connection.
The members of southern Ontario’s tornado-damaged community are hoping to reach out to those hardest hit in the U.S.
Nearly two years after an F3 tornado hit, key buildings on Goderich's famous square are still being rebuilt. To say it takes time to recover - from what Mother Nature destroyed in seconds - is an understatement.
And it's not just big projects. Garth Rate is just now clearing land in his backyard to rebuild a storage shed destroyed by the tornado.
It's one of the last projects on a long list damage, but Rate is mindful that he was able to rebuild.
He says his heart aches for those who lost everything in the recent Oklahoma twisters, "You see whole towns that are just gone, so I can really sympathize with them."
With the scars not fully healed, it's no surprise the people of Goderich, feel a tie to those impacted by tornadoes. And, that connection has sparked the F3 for F5 Project, to help the people in Moore, Oklahoma.
The goal is to fill a tractor-trailer full of good to send south. To do that, the local radio station in Goderich, along with a grocery store and a church, have collected cash and material donations.
Thousands of dollars in cash have already been generated, not be surprising given the connection people in Goderich feel with Moore.
Radio DJ Ally Anderson says "You are there with them, you know the fear that they’re experiencing you know what they’re going through to have a lot of something to go to having nothing."
Anderson is speaking from direct experience, as she was living in a second floor apartment - on the square - when the tornado hit.
“My building started shaking, and as I was opening the bathroom door to get out, my windows started coming in."
She escaped unharmed, and the apartment is newly rebuilt, but it took almost two years.
That's why she and Rate are so proud of their town for helping Moore, where the effort to recreate what was there before will take even longer.
“A long time, a long time,” Rate says.
For more information on donating: http://www.goderichbia.ca/atk/uploads/F3_to_F5_.pdf