Tornado Help For The Mid South
Posted by
Kevin
Monkeyfister is right: the tornado outbreak we had on Super Tuesday has done a lot of damage to the Mid South:
From northern DeSoto County through Southeast Memphis and on to Jackson, Tenn., and beyond Nashville, twisters hopscotched through neighborhoods and commercial districts, whipsawing buildings into twisted heaps with winds up to 170 mph.
Nearly 8,500 homes served by the Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division remained without electrical service late Wednesday, and officials said it could be weeks before all power is restored.
A total of 15 schools in Memphis and Shelby County were closed Wednesday, with many expected to remain shut today. Several prominent businesses and vital commercial centers — including Hickory Ridge Mall and sprawling warehouse and industrial facilities nearby — remain closed with shattered walls and roofs.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is expected to request federal disaster relief for the hardest-hit counties by Friday. In Arkansas, Gov. Mike Beebe declared 10 counties disaster areas Wednesday.
President Bush will tour damaged areas of Tennessee on Friday, the White House announced.
The Memphis area was the dead center of and one of the main launching points for a much larger storm outbreak that generated 73 tornado reports extending from central Arkansas to northeastern Alabama to central Kentucky.
And that is just in Memphis. The counties between us and Jackson were also hit hard, as was the Nashville area. This was a bad, bad series of storms with Tornados that stayed on the gorund for a while. There is a lot of damage across the region and a lot of people are going to need help.
Via Monkeyfister, here is where you can help:
American Red Cross
Mid-South Chapter
1400 Central Avenue
Memphis, TN 38104
901-726-1690
And:
United Way of the Mid-South phone in a donation at (901) 433-4300.
Monkey fister also asks for a bit of blog help:
As the area affected is so broad and detached, and everyone in the Country was distracted by politics last night, as yet, there is no central assistance hub set-up. So, at the link, above, you’ll find the two agencies with the broadest radius to help the area right now. Both take DIRECT donations.
A small-blog swarm on that post (or this comment) would be greatly appreciated by more people than just me. I can’t describe how wide-spread the damage is down here. It’s enormous. The Media, per usual, is only just now waking up to the situation, after their Super-Duper-Let’s-All-Wet-Our-Pants-Together- Tuesday Political Hangover. Like NOLA, these are REALLY poor folks down here, and have nothing, and nowhere to go.
A short post about this at YOUR Blog, linking either to my post, above, or directly to the two Orgs mentioned in the post above, would sure be a big help, and would be greatly appreciated by many people who are relying on help. They are all that we have right now.
