Red Cross Continues to Help Hundreds of Tornado Victims

A month after December’s devastating tornadoes, American Red Cross volunteers from all over the country are still helping in Kentucky, providing shelter, meals, comfort and support.

More than 700 people are still out of their homes and the Red Cross continues to work alongside state officials and other community organizations to support people in need, including those staying in emergency shelters and other temporary accommodations, such as state park lodges and hotel rooms.

The Red Cross is also working with partners to move some of those affected by this disaster into non-congregant housing options — such as hotel rooms — in light of the increasing spread of the omicron variant. To help keep everyone safe, we’re using COVID safety precautions including masks, health screenings, enhanced cleaning procedures and encouraging social distancing regardless of vaccine status.

RED CROSS RESPONSE With the help of partners, the Red Cross has served more than 87,600 meals and snacks, distributed more than 52,000 relief items, and provided more than 11,600 individual care contacts to help people with medical or disability needs, as well as emotional and spiritual support during these challenging times.

In Kentucky alone, we’ve served more than 73,000 meals and snacks, distributed more than 41,000 relief items, and provided over 10,000 individual care contacts.

The Red Cross is not accepting donations of food, household items or clothing — as they cannot be distributed by our teams. Right now, financial donations are the quickest and best way to get help to those who need it most, which give people the flexibility to purchase what they need.

RESPONSE A TEAM EFFORT With thousands of homes affected and damage spanning hundreds of miles, this response is a team effort. Massive disasters like these tornadoes leave behind an incredible amount of need and no single organization can do it alone. The Red Cross is working very closely with the entire response community — government agencies, community groups and others — to coordinate emergency relief efforts and get help to people as quickly as possible. The Red Cross will be part of the solution — but not the only solution — to help families recover.

Because the Red Cross is an organization supported by donations from the American public, we do not have the same scale of resources as government; hence, our financial assistance is intended to be a “bridge” as described above, and to supplement resources provided by other agencies and partners to those in need to get back on their feet. The majority of work continues in Kentucky where Red Cross caseworkers have opened more than 2,000 cases with 5,300 people served which represents more than $2 million in direct cash assistance that has already been put into the hands of some 2,200 households who have begun their recovery. The Red Cross will remain in Kentucky for as long as we are needed to help those on their continued path to recovery.

YOU CAN HELP people affected by disasters like storms and countless other crises by making a gift to Red Cross Disaster Relief. Your gift is a commitment to helping people in need, and every single donation matters. Your gift enables the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small. Visit redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS, or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

CORPORATIONS, FOUNDATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS HELP  The generous donations from members of the Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program (ADGP) and the Disaster Responder Program enable the American Red Cross to prepare communities for disasters big and small, respond whenever and wherever disasters occur and help families during the recovery process.

ADGP $1 Million members are: Amazon; American Airlines; Anheuser-Busch Foundation; Anthem Foundation; Bank of America; Caterpillar Foundation; Costco Wholesale; Delta Air Lines; Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation; FedEx; The Home Depot Foundation; Latter-day Saint Charities; Lilly Endowment Inc.; Lowe's Companies, Inc.; Microsoft Corp.; Nationwide Foundation; The Starbucks Foundation; State Farm; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited; Truist Foundation; VSP Global; Walmart and the Walmart Foundation; and Wells Fargo.

ADGP $500,000 members are: Altria Group; Aon; Best Buy; Calmoseptine, Inc.; Capital One; Citi Foundation; The Clorox Company; Darden Foundation; Delta Dental Community Care Foundation; Edison International; Energy Transfer/Sunoco Foundation; Ford Motor Company Fund; Fox Corporation; General Motors; HCA Healthcare; International Paper; The J.M. Smucker Company; Johnson Controls Foundation; The Kroger Co. Foundation; LHC Group; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Mastercard; Merck; Mondelēz International Foundation; New Balance Foundation; PayPal; PepsiCo Foundation; Salesforce; Southeastern Grocers Gives Foundation & Southeastern Grocers, home of Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie; Stanley Black & Decker; Target; The TJX Companies, Inc.; Toyota; United Airlines; UPS; USAA; Visa Foundation; The Walt Disney Company; and The Wawa Foundation.

Disaster Responder Program members are: 7-Eleven Cares Foundation; Adobe; Alliance Data; American Express; Ameriprise Financial, Inc.; Assurant; AT&T; AvalonBay Communities, Inc.; Avangrid Foundation; Barclays; Big 5 Sporting Goods; CarMax; Choice Hotels International; Cisco Foundation; CNA Insurance; The Coca-Cola Company; CSX; The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation; Discover; Dollar General; Duke Energy; Dutch Bros Foundation; Equitable; FirstEnergy Foundation; Grainger; Harbor Freight Tools Foundation, LLC; Hewlett Packard Enterprise Foundation; HP Foundation; Humble Bundle; Kaiser Permanente; Kimberly-Clark Corporation; The Kraft Heinz Company Foundation; The Labcorp Charitable Foundation; Lenovo Foundation; Liberty Mutual Insurance; Marathon Petroleum Foundation, Inc.; Mattress Firm; McKesson; Neiman Marcus Group; NextEra Energy, Inc.; Northrop Grumman; Northwestern Mutual and the Northwestern Mutual Foundation; Old Dominion Freight Line; Pacific Life Foundation; Procter & Gamble; Prudential Financial; Raytheon Technologies; Reckitt; Rodan + Fields Prescription for Change Foundation; Ross Stores Foundation; Ryder System, Inc.; San Manuel Band of Mission Indians; Security Finance’s Lending Hand Foundation; ServiceNow, Inc.; Southwest Airlines; U-Haul International; and U.S. Bank Foundation.