Red Cross still needs donations
As Alabama moves into month two in the wake of a swarm of tornadoes that ripped across the state, impacted communities and the American Red Cross are moving forward from emergency response into recovery mode.
“Our job here isn’t done, but we’re glad to have progressed to this point, where the critical, immediate needs of thousands of disaster victims have been met,” said Jim Reisweber, who directs the Red Cross disaster relief operation for Alabama out of a headquarters in Hoover, on the south side of Birmingham.
Niki and Shane Eberhard and their two teenage children moved out of a Red Cross shelter and into an apartment exactly one month after the April 27 tornado drove a massive tree into their home in Tuscaloosa.
“The Red Cross folks have been wonderful,” Niki Eberhard said of her family’s shelter stay, “but I can’t wait to get into our own place, to begin making our own lives normal again.”
At the peak of relief operations, some 2,000 Red Crossers were running 15 shelters and more than a dozen emergency aid stations and meal sites; they were distributing food, water and relief supplies; they were offering emotional support and recovery guidance. Specially-trained teams of Red Cross medical, mental health, spiritual care and casework volunteers have met with the families of 248 people who lost their lives in the disaster, providing support and guidance for them to move forward. Disaster nurses continue to visit victims who are still being treated in hospitals.
Since the April 15 tornado outbreak in Alabama, the Red Cross has:
· Opened 35 shelters, providing 7,319 overnight stays;
· Served 1,399,649 meals and snacks;
· Provided 26,172 health and mental health consultations;
· Handed out more than 984,000 relief items, from tarps to toiletries and coolers to clean-up supplies;
· Deployed more than 2,400 trained disaster relief workers.
Alabama is not alone in facing disasters this year. Since the end of March, the Red Cross has launched 30 major disaster responses across 23 states to help people affected by historic tornadoes, wildfires and flooding. The Red Cross estimates it will spend as much as $41 million responding to the disasters that have occurred since March 31.
Red Cross disaster relief services are free, provided by generous donations of the American people. To help make these services possible, make a donation by visting www.redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or texting the word REDCROSS to 90999 for a $10 donation.
