Holly's best-known son, former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, spent Thursday talking by phone with hometown friends about the stunning damage inflicted by Mother Nature.

Romer was in Washington, D.C., where he has been working on an education project several days a week and returning to Colorado on the weekends.

The first call he made Thursday morning was to his business partner, Craig Shoemaker, who runs a farm equipment outlet with stores in Lamar and Holly.

"We went over what he knew about the damage and what we could do with the equipment to help." The two men agreed they could send bulldozers and other heavy equipment into Holly to help clear the debris.

Growing up in Holly, Romer said he had never seen anything close to the destruction inflicted by the tornado.

"It hurts when your hometown is hit like that," he said.

"Holly has a resilience," Romer added. "There's a string of life that holds a small town together. When a tragedy happens, everyone comes to the fore and helps."