On opposite sides of downtown Atlanta on Saturday, homeowners and volunteers, some from other states, used chain saws, brooms and their own sweat to restore neighborhoods crushed by last weekend's tornadoes.

In Cabbagetown, an eclectic neighborhood east of downtown, hundreds of volunteers queued up for their assignments.

Hyosub Shin / AJC

Volunteer William Chu cleans up branches early Saturday morning at Mount Gilead Baptist Church in Vine City.

RELATED LINKS: • More photos STORM AFTERMATH • IRS giving storm victims more time to file • Officials believe man killed in tornado was seeking shelter • Federal aid available in Fulton PHOTOS: • One month after tornado • Oakland Cemetery • NW Georgia devastation • Scene downtown 3 days after • East Atlanta recovers • Cabbagetown • Vine City | Rome • Aerial view of damage • Downtown 1 | 2 • Readers' photos 1 | 2 | 3 MORE: • Woman killed by tornado mourned • Landmarks damaged | Map VIDEOS: • On YouTube • Aerials show downtown devastation • Atlantans survey damage • Storm hits MORE ALERTS: • Get AJC breaking news & traffic alerts on your mobile device.

In Vine City, where many of the residents are low-income, dozens of yellow-shirted volunteers from various congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were waiting when the Rev. Dexter Johnson got to the meeting place for the day's work.

"They're like little ants," Johnson said as he watched volunteers quickly reduce two large uprooted oak trees to manageable size across the street from the Mount Gilead Baptist Church, which lost portions of its roof and was flooded in the storm.

City workers were removing the chopped-up tree trunks and debris almost as quickly as volunteers put it beside the street.

"One of our goals is to work with the community and to serve the community," said Hee Jin Cho, who brought her friends from the Asian Christian Fellowship at Georgia Tech. That is how she and four friends used their spring break.

And it's how a dozen students from Tulane University in New Orleans used theirs, working in Cabbagetown to help clear debris.

"It's been amazing," said Jacquesse Williams, who planned to return to Louisiana after the work was done Saturday.

Henry Kekoolani, 17, and Christopher Taylor, 16, from a Walton County Mormon group, used a claw hammer to methodically hack away weighty red clay that clung to the roots of a tree in Vine City.

Nearby, volunteers from several churches laid out food for the 100 to 150 volunteers, some of whom came from as far away as Savannah and Dublin. About twice that many workers were in Cabbagetown.

Three men from the Hebron Baptist Church in Dacula were at the Berean Avenue house of Shirley Perry, where the roof was damaged and the front porch was destroyed.

"We concentrate on mainly ... people who don't have insurance," the Rev. Ron Brent said.

Volunteers and employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency walked the two neighborhoods, distributing information on how to apply for federal assistance to make repairs that insurance does not cover.

Johnson said many qualify only for FEMA loans instead of grants. Shaking his head, Johnson observes "a disaster comes through and puts you in debt."