MEMPHIS, Tennessee — "We were blessed because it could have been the other way," Frayser resident Ben Ward said.
Ward still counts his blessings, four years to the day after a major windstorm ripped through his neighborhood on May 27th, 2017.
"It was a rough time," Ward remembered.
That night, Ward hunkered down next to his wife, with winds nearing 100 miles per hour.
"I heard the tree say 'woooooooo' and it seemed like for a while the top was going to go off the house," Ward said.
A mound marks where that tree once stood, which toppled away from Ward's home.
"If it would have fell this way, we would have been smashed," Ward said.
"It just looked like a bomb when off. Everything was askew. Trees were everywhere, branches were everywhere," Lisa Johnson added.
Johnson's neighbor wasn't so lucky in another area of Frayser, as a tree destroyed her home - cutting it in half - four years ago.
"We were extremely fortunate that no one was killed or anything," Johnson said.
Following the intensity of mother nature and that lengthy cleanup process, the Frayser community came together, assisting and feeding each other.
"We saw the community in need and we reached out to the community and they came together," Former Union Grove Institutional Baptist Church Pastor Charlie Caswell said.
Pastor Caswell remembered how the storm strengthened Frayser's resolve, through meals and fellowship.
"Seven days of feeding people every day, sun up and sun down and no lights in the building, so went the lights came on, hope came back," Pastor Caswell said.
MLGW spent more than $15 million in repairs after the 2017 storm.
It took nearly 200 electric and tree trimming crews to restore power to all affected customers between May 27th and June 7th, 2017.