Tag: American Red Cross

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Monday Spotlight: Tornado Relief

Last week, in the matter of just a few days we experienced as many tornadoes as we sometimes see in an entire year.   This takes a lot of help and organization to clean up and so I wanted to set this Monday toward getting some of this information out there.  In the next few days I will set up a full-page here on Project Kinect for all this information by location with detailed information but for right now, this is what I can get out there. As said in today’s Washington Post, FEMA is just getting prepared to provide tornado relief so maybe this can begin as a conversation with everyone on how to expedite this procedure and not see what we saw in Tuscaloosa, Alabama last spring.  In this, I am including the states involved with the majority of the devastation last week.   

Region 4 out of Atlanta: Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee

Telephone Numbers:
Main Number: 770.220.5200
Fax Number: 770.220.5230

Mailing Address:
Federal Emergency Management Agency
3003 Chamblee Tucker Road
Atlanta, GA 30341

Media Inquiries: 770.220.5226

Region 5 out of Chicago:  Illinois, Ohio, Indiana

Mailing Address                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         536 South Clark St., 6th Floor
Chicago, IL 60605
(312) 408-5500

Media Contact

Mark Peterson
Email:  mark.peterson2@dhs.gov
Telephone:  312-408-4469

  • As far as right now, I have only seen one facebook page for any of the cities but here is one for Northern Alabama

 

 

  • If you’re a college student and you want to do something impactful on your spring break, here are some ways to volunteer.

*Relief Spark: By far what I think is the most incredible disaster relief organization I have seen.  Many people find volunteer opportunities with a church but if you are without a church, Relief Spark is a great place to share your gifts.  They are already setting up camps throughout the south and midwest.  Check out their facebook page.

*Disaster Assistance with the Church of Christ: We worked with Mike and his kitchen on wheels in Tuscaloosa.  They have plenty of work to do and you definitely get to see your impact when working with them.  They just arrived in Southern Indiana today. 

This is just a start but if people are coming up with questions on what to do now that things are destroyed or if people want to help , then here are some beginning points.  Like previously mentioned, I will have a much larger working page later this week.  If you have any information that you would like to contribute to it, please email me at gregg@projectkinect.com.  If you need extra help and need assistance otherwise on finding answers that have not been answered yet, i.e. free medical assistance, legal aid, water safety, paperwork help or anything else not listed, then also email me at gregg@projectkinect.com and I will make phone calls, research and help find those answers. 

WE ARE ALL INVOLVED!!!

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Looking Back: Dinner with the American Red Cross Volunteers

My year has been so full of meeting hundreds of different people and getting so much knowledge, joy, heartache and inspiration from all of them.  One of the moments where I was able to just take it all in was a night in Tuscaloosa when Alyssa and I got the chance to sit with all of the volunteers from the American Red Cross on their last night in Tuscaloosa after they had been there for almost two months.  Here is the post I wrote on that night…

This is Marlene.  She is one of the American Red Cross Volunteers that have been here for the majority of the time since the storms on April twenty seventh.  As we were cleaning up lots on Thursday, she was going around from worksite to worksite encouraging volunteers to take breaks and get water in them.   When she came by where we were working, she scared Alyssa to death with her megaphone.

On Friday, we ran back into her when we went to help an Americorps team take down and clean up a shelter that is originally built as a community center.  In between being drilled with questions by Alyssa about the Red Cross, and her drilling Alyssa on questions about when will she meet her son, Marlene invited us to dinner with her team of volunteers.  This would be their last dinner together before they all went back to their respective homes.  Of course Alyssa and I went to sit among all this knowledge and insight over the last month and a half.

This group of volunteers was from all over.  Marlene is from Michigan, and she definitely brought the Midwest to this group.  There was also a woman from Wisconsin and a couple people from Ohio.  One of them, Sandy, has been volunteering for eleven years.  She told us about her first Disaster Relief (DR) assignment and that was September eleventh.  She was sent to ground zero that following January and talked about how still, four months later, the tension and need was so great for everyone there.  She felt then, helping so many people in need that she truly had a place volunteering at the American Red Cross.

Next to her was Jason who was from Kentucky.  This was his first DR and he is getting the instructions of where he is going next this morning.  He can’t wait.  From what Alyssa and I gathered sitting there with him, listening to him talk about what had happened in Tuscaloosa, he’s ready for the next assignment.

Next to me was Greg who handed us our lunches that day.  He is from Alabama and like Jason, this was his first DR too.  He was in the kitchen for the duration of his assignment in Tuscaloosa but is vocal that his next assignment will be driving the assistance van with Marlene.

Keep in mind that the age ranges of these volunteers are all over the place.  There were a few that were in their twenties and thirties and then is just went up from there: Anyone can be a volunteer.  It was a remarkable moment to spend with these individuals and see the bonds that were made through this incredible disaster and to know how each of them has helped to make things a little brighter in Tuscaloosa.  If you are interested in becoming a volunteer with American Red Cross, then check out your local chapter and they can get you started with training classes.

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A Look at Forest Lake

This week we have been helping out at the Central Church of Christ in Forest Lake.  This entire neighborhood has been decimated into rubble.  Many houses have been able to get through the storms with minimal damage, but for the majority, they were left with a pile of trash that has formed around the cores of their houses.   Some of these people will never return to their homes.  Others have had to struggle with the pain and agony of demolishing their own house because they were unable to receive assistance from anyone.  He fortunately was able to drudge up the money to pay for that but so many others don’t have those resources.  These next few pictures are taking you through some of the houses and their stories in this community.

 

In this home, a mother and her five month baby lived.  It was her parents home.  She heard the tornado coming and went into the basement to ride out the storm.  When she felt it was safe to come out from hiding, she climbed up the stairs and to her surprise, her entire home was gone.  With the exception of a kitchen wall, a baby crib a couple more walls and her parents piano, the house was no longer defined as a livable space.  Can you imagine coming up ten minutes later and seeing your entire house gone?

This house is owned by an elderly couple.  That red on their window says that the house is no longer safe to live in.  Why you ask?  Well the roof has disappeared.  If you were to walk around the building, you would see that a tree has come down into their second and first story bathrooms. They husband was trying to get him and his wife to the bathroom when the storm hit.  Fortunately for them, her bad hips, and weakness due to chemotherapy made it so they were not able to get there.

They both have been stopping by, saying hello in great spirits and having a lunch.  They have been trying to get as much as they can out of the house on a one hour trip each day. It is just too hot to get any more than that.

I’m not completely sure of the entire story about this house, but I do know that the people living here were out of town and when they got back, they just turned around.  Can you imagine getting to your house after being on vacation and only have a standing fireplace?  Thankfully though, they were away from the house.

The family that lives here is staying with family in Birmingham.  When the father found out that his insurance wouldn’t cover the destruction of his house and the cost of taking it all away so that a contractor could look at the property, he rented th machinery and tore the rest of the house down himself.  He had his wife and family stay in Birmingham while he did this extremely emotional task.  What if you had to take a bulldozer to your family home?  Would you be able to?  My other question is did he hav that extra money available for these added costs? 

Directly across the street where we are doing food service from out of a motor home, this house stands there, bare naked to the world.  The story of this house is the meaning of life and how we all can be gone at any time.  While you look at the picture, take in the couch, and the wall that is laying on the couch.  You can see the stairs and then as you look right, you see a door.  That is this man’s kitchen.  To the right of that, is a coat closet and that is where this man sat through the storm; that two foot by four-foot space. 

 

There are stories and stories like this:  The people survived the tornadoes that came through here.    There are also stories about Joplin, the floods of Memphis and the Mississippi River, currently the Missouri River and the wild fires in Arizona but what happens after?  It is nearly two months after the tornadoes and so many people still need so much.  The Red Cross has left, the Salvation Distribution center is shutting down next week and FEMA is beginning to shut down offices but so much is still needed.  Is this happening at every disaster area?  I have to think that it is and does but while we are here, we will find out how help can still be given and what needs to be done to get that help.  This is what we will work on while we are still here in Tuscaloosa. 

 

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Teaming up With AmeriCorps

When one my closest friends graduated college, she knew one thing for fact; that she wanted to give back to the community through service.  Her choice of vehicle for this endeavor was the AmeriCorps. Friday we got the chance to team up with one of the AmeriCorps teams here in Tuscaloosa.

Our assignment was to help the American Red Cross break down the last of the shelters from when the tornadoes came through.  This is a great thing because now we know that all of the people who have been displaced are now in a residence but unfortunately, it also meant that the volunteers from the Red Cross would be going home.  They are heading out when there is still so much work to do.  Thankfully FEMA and the AmeriCorps are still in town.

I am told that there are currently about ten teams of eight in Tuscaloosa at the moment:  Each of them doing something equally important to help out the community.   For those of you that are not familiar with AmeriCorps, here is a bit of the basics.  AmeriCorps is for adults 18-24 and it works well for people who are taking a break from school or have recently finished college.  In addition to gaining the satisfaction of helping others, full time AmeriCorps members receive tuition and student loan help.  Every year AmeriCorps offers over 75,000 opportunities to help out in different communities in the country so if you have the least bit of interest, then check out the AmeriCorps website. 

These additional pictures are of the American Red Cross center that was hit by the storm.  After we loaded the truck with all of the cots and bedding from the shelter, we then went to unload the truck to this office building that was still standing after a brutal hit from the April storms.

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Cherrywood Worksite

Our first day on an actual clean up site was Cherrywood.  It is the most overwhelming thing to get to an area that has been completely demolished and asked to “clean it up”.  In almost 100 degree heat, in the sun, we raked, shoveled and wheel barreled our way through two house lots.  It is the only way to do it; with basic tools to give the people who live there and their insurance companies the ability to assess the damage. 

We met more volunteers from all over on this assignment too.  There was James Brown, and his group from his church in Florida, Chris from Mississippi, a couple from Georgia and some from West Virginia.  They had been here a week and still were shocked at what they saw.  They had great presence though and were extremely upbeat about the difficult job that we were doing. 

In these lots, there were boats everywhere.  We aren’t completely sure where they came from.  Some tell us that there was a boat sales/repair shop close by and some said that they could have come from the lake in town.  Either way, it is incredible to see these boats somewhere clearly that they did not start off at. 

Toward the end of our work day, the gentlemen who owned the lot where we were cleaning was there with his blueprints ready to build better than the original house.  In this area that often had no hope in it, we could still see people beginning their lives again. Like the man who was rebuilding on the lot we were cleaning, there were already other houses on their way up as well as homes where the damage was fixable, it was getting done.  People are intrepid and it was definitely visible in this hot June day.

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