This morning, I woke up and immediately logged onto Facebook to see if any friends and family from the Southeast had checked in. The blogosphere, or whatever the latest term for it is, had been busy. In ten minutes, I learned
- Reba McIntyre and Blake Shelton are hosting a benefit concert to help tornado victims.
- I can text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross, who are on the ground in the affected areas already.
- I can text “GIVE” to 80888 to donate $10 to The Salvation Army‘s tornado disaster response.
- A new Facebook group has formed, Toomers for Tuscaloosa, which is a switcheroo from the Tide for Toomers group that formed after an Alabama fan poisoned some hallowed oak trees in Auburn University’s Toomer’s Corner. They’re doing a great job of marshalling the troops in Alabama to get supplies to those in need.
- St Matthias Episcopal Church in Tuscaloosa and Hands on Birmingham are organizing volunteer clean up efforts.
- and so much more
I’m in Colorado, but grew up in Alabama. I am old enough to remember when Hurricane Frederic hit Mobile in 1979. Like now, there was no phone service and we relied on our radios. Back then, though, there was no way for people in places untouched by the storm to mobilize help anywhere near as efficiently and quickly. During times like these, I am profoundly thankful for this connective technology we now take so much for granted.
You can see a partial list of resources and organizations helping the tornado victims at my other blog, Sansense.