Cape Cod communities getting back to business following tornadoes

After getting hit hard by Tuesday's tornadoes, the communities on the Cape are slowly, but surely getting back to business.

In Harwich, many residents are trying to clear their yards -- easier now that the town has waived all of the fees for dumping tree debris.

At the Harwich Public Works yard, a police officer was hired to handle the line of cars coming by to drop off storm damage. Public Works usually weighs debris and charges residents based on the weight, but town officials decided to forgive the fee as long as people cut the tree branches into a manageable size and take it to the town location.

The town is all hands on deck, including inmates who were sent by the state to help out.

Governor Charlie Baker also activated the Mass. National Guard under state active duty to help the Cape Cod communities impacted by Tuesday's weather.

"We have 500 people who are now working here and they'll be back again tomorrow and again Saturday," Governor Baker said.

Including Harwich, the National Guard will also assist the towns of Dennis, Chatham and Yarmouth in their recovery efforts.

"The biggest thing is speed," Governor Baker said. "We want to get as much of this stuff cleaned out of here as fast as possible."

"We are getting a lot of resources. MEMA was here almost immediately," said Lincoln Hooper, DPW Director. "Eversource has a plethora of people, all the roads are open currently."

Electricity also vital is now back on for almost everyone.

"We have roughly 150 customers remaining across our system," said Craig Hallstrom, the President of Eversource.

In Yarmouth, business owners are looking forward to a summer weekend after the tornadoes forced them to shut down for a few days.

"I was surprised at how fast they restored the power," said Rachel Mingos of Yarmouth. "We thought it would be at least a week, and to have power up within 48 hours is pretty amazing."

At the Skipper Chowder House on South Shore Drive, the owners said customers were on the deck when the tornado touched down.

The family who owns the business in Yarmouth said it was an emotional decision to close up shop for safety reasons, even though they had backup generators.

"We were open for lunch, then the credit card system went down, the phone lines went down, lights were flickering, " said Amy Delaney, the owner of the restaurant. "We made the tough decision to close, and a lot of businesses had to."

Cox Media Group