Together, with the help of social networking sites and the volunteer services of the American Red Cross, Alabama residents are receiving donations in preparation for the long road to recovery after the April 27 tornado outbreak.
Lasting only minutes, the storm claimed the lives of a few hundred people, injured thousands and left even more missing, or homeless.
Auburn's local chapter of the Red Cross is doing everything it can to get the donations received to the areas in need.
Auburn's Red Cross chapter, has collected somewhere between $190,000 and $200,000 in direct monetary donations, largely in part by social media sites like: Facebook, Twitter, StormHope.org as well as many other disaster relief sites.
Although this is only a small portion of the entire monetary donations collected and distributed by the Red Cross, the total amount of incoming funds and donations is nowhere near capable of covering the billions of dollars in damages.
Sites like the Facebook group Toomer's for Tuscaloosa, created by former group-director and Auburn resident Warren Tidwell, are showing just how effective technology is in alerting others to ways to support victims in need.
Tidwell said in the past month he has driven more than 7,200 miles while visiting some of the affected areas.
He is now working with a group at the Flatrock Community Center to direct the distribution of physical and monetary donations.
"There's a lot of people that are hurting out there, and there's a lot of help coming in," Tidwell said. "Sometimes supplies and donations are delivered to areas that cannot or do not need them. So, we want to be able to point them in the right direction."
Other organizations were active in collecting donations immediately after the storms rolled through.
"After the storm hit, the very next morning such groups like, Toomer's for Tuscaloosa were already up," said Brent Percival, development and fundraising coordinator for the local Red Cross Chapter. "We responded as quickly as we could, given what happened, but this is a great group that is generating awareness in social media."
Percival had a few tips for those who are wondering how to help out with the recovery.
"The best way for people to help out would be to make monetary donations to the Red Cross," Percival said. "This is the most effective way for us to get the money to our volunteers on the ground in the affected areas. Essentially, if someone spends $4 on a case of water to donate, we could have been purchased that same case of bottles for half the price. People don't realize this, but besides physically volunteering, donating money is the next best thing to do in a situation like this."
Tidwell said the Flatrock Community Center is servicing 14 rural communities in Jackson County, and they are trying to meet their immediate needs.
"People all over the state are being helped in such a way that they are redirecting and distributing the overstock of ready-to-eat meals, and cases of water bottles that they are receiving," Tidwell said. "In the next 24 hours, Joplin, Mo., will be receiving the overstocked supplies to better help their need. Nothing is being hoarded or stored for later. This is what we want to be doing, both now, and in the future."
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