Early Monday evening Gov. Chris Gregoire declared a state of emergency, due to storm damage, for 16 Washington counties including Ferry County, where residents are still recovering from last Friday's powerful storm.

In Keller hundreds of homes remain without power, toppled trees taking out power lines, as well as homes during the storm.

The town is a surreal place to be right now with power lines down everywhere, tree snapped, giant trees uprooted from the ground all because of Friday's storm that moved in and devastated this small town.

"Three, one hit and stayed the other two hit and rolled off and the back shed and when I went outside my car is hit and everything is just destroyed.," Jennifer Peoples said.

Peoples and her three kids, ages 3, 1 and 3 months, had nowhere to go as trees and power lines toppled around their home in Alice Flats.

"It seemed like a tornado; the house was shaking, it was so loud I couldn't ... you know ... my kids are screaming," she said.

The storm Friday blew in around 4 p.m. and within an hour the town of Keller was a disaster zone.

"It's horrible so ... I dunno ... night is the worst, I mean during the day everyone's around but at nighttime when you're by yourself you know ... they don't have nothing," Peoples said.

The family is now living at the Keller Community Center, sleeping on cots and eating what's offered to them, as are a dozen other families who also lost everything in the storm.

"You can't imagine unless you come and see it and see pictures of it how bad it is it's devastating and it's the entire community," Kelly Jerred, who runs the community center and is helping manage the emergency shelter, said.

Fortunately for Keller, a tight-knit town of about 400 residents, everyone is pitching in to help.

"Our refrigerator trucks were a Godsend when we started getting them, we've got local businesses, the store owners, calling and saying what do you need," Jerred said.

The care is 24/7 and so is the cleanup. Resources, like the Department of Natural Resources and the local public utilities department are working around the clock to clean up and repair the damage.

Looking around town it's tough to imagine there's a silver lining but there is.

"That's the thing is nobody's hurt so ... that's something to be thankful for," Jennifer Peoples said.