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Evansville Begins Cleanup After Tornado
Written by
Lesly C. Simmons
, Staff Writer, RedCross.org
Tuesday, November 08, 2005 — EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Immediately after a devastating tornado tore a 20 mile path through Southern Indiana and Northern Kentucky on Sunday, local American Red Cross chapters sprang into action to support their shocked neighbors.
Since the storm cut across two counties in Indiana, as well as going over the border into Kentucky, teams from chapters in all the affected areas came together to provide the best possible support for storm victims.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels greets a Red Cross volunteer in Evansville Tuesday after a tour of damaged areas. (Photo Credit: Lesly Simmons/American Red Cross) |
“People across the state are asking me what they can do, and I am telling them, ‘Just call the Red Cross,’” said Gov. Mitch Daniels as he toured a damaged neighborhood with Lt. Gov. Becky Stillman.
On Tuesday morning, the Southwestern Indiana Red Cross chapter office in Evansville was bustling with spontaneous volunteers looking to help and storm victims applying for emergency assistance. In back, the loading dock was full of vehicles filling with food, drinks and supplies for the communities beginning the long cleanup.
“The local chapters are all coming together to serve the community,” said Brenna Garnett, spokesperson for the Southwestern Indiana chapter. “And all across the region other chapters are offering to help as needed.”
In the first few days since the storm, Garnett said that the Red Cross has helped hundreds of families to meet their immediate needs of food, water and shelter, and they expect that number to increase as the week goes on. Emergency response vehicles (ERVs) and fixed kitchens also have served more than 4,000 meals to disaster response workers, utility and clean-up crews and residents.
A utility crew checks out equipment destroyed at the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park on Sunday by a tornado. At least 23 deaths have now been attributed to the terrifying storm.
(Photo Credit: Lesly Simmons/American Red Cross) |
The storm touched down at 2 a.m. on Sunday as an F3 tornado, categorized as causing severe damage on the Fujita Tornado Damage Scale. The Red Cross opened two shelters on Sunday, but by Tuesday they were only housing one family, as many people moved in with family and friends.
All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, disasters like the Midwest ice storms, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disaster. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster please do so at the time of your donation. Call 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013. Internet users can make a secure online contribution by visiting www.redcross.org.
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