By Jill Feldon

Still reeling, Chaunta Davis-Gibbs recalls the traumatic tornado experience she endured. The St. Louis native was working as a substitute teacher on May 16 when her principal said a big storm was coming and everyone needed to go home immediately.

Chaunta jumped into her car to make what should have been a 20-minute drive but encountered traffic jams, heavy winds, and hail. “Trees and pieces of houses were falling all around me. I had to dodge them, driving over curves, trying to get home,” she says.

Eventually forced to pull over and run into a barber shop for cover until the tornado passed, Chaunta emerged to find a clear, sunny day. “It was like nothing happened.”

However, when she finally got to her house of 13 years, she discovered smashed walls, collapsed ceilings, exposed wires, and damaged water pipes. Fortunately, her husband and four dogs were fine but covered in debris. Her daughter, who was at work during the tornado, was safe. So, Chaunta and her husband grabbed the dogs, cages, and whatever clothes or valuables they could and took off.

Community organizations, including the American Red Cross, soon came to her neighborhood to assess the damage, offer help, and provide recovery services.

The Urban League set up Chaunta and her family at a hotel and partnered with the Red Cross to support Chaunta and other affected people. The Red Cross provided meals, personal care products, vouchers for clothes, financial assistance, and spiritual and health services for people housed in hotels as well as those placed in eight Red Cross shelters. More than 500 people in and around St. Louis have been receiving Red Cross care and services in the weeks following the disaster. Recovery efforts continue, including a team dedicated to helping those whose houses were destroyed find housing.

“The Red Cross has been there for us,” Chaunta says. “Just being there, providing comfort, has helped so much. And the meals have been great!”

Chaunta’s family and many others are now on the road to recovery, thanks to the dozens of volunteers who traveled across town or even across the country to be there for the St. Louis community.

“The American Red Cross stepped in to help right away,” says volunteer Belinda Knipp from Derby, Kansas. “It’s very rewarding to see the difference between how stressed they were when they first came to us and how they feel after they received Red Cross care, comfort kits, a place to rest and sleep, and not to have to worry about where their meals will come from. They know that someone cares.”

Belinda pauses and adds, “I’ve seen the stress leave and hope come in.”. To help those affected by the tornadoes in Missouri and Illinois, go to Donate Now - Online Donations | American Red Cross.