Late yesterday afternoon, we caught up with Red Cross reps to find out how we, & you, could best serve to assist the recovery & rebuilding efforts for Saturday's tornado victims in Canton & Eustace.   

First, to the question, "are volunteers needed"?  Their answer:  yes, & no.  Yes, the Red Cross always needs more volunteers, but they won't send people out into a disaster area who haven't been through their training program.  So while they do encourage anyone interested to volunteer their services for future events, they've actually got plenty of helpers on the scenes of last weekend's tornadoes.

Second, what supplies are needed for this situation?  As power & other utility services have now been restored for the most part, the Red Cross says they do NOT need bottled water.  Regarding other clean-up & household supplies, they prefer to wait until they can coordinate with local government agencies to put out an authorized list of what's needed, & more importantly, where those donations can be dropped off.  When that information if finalized, we'll let you know.

For now, what the Red Cross says is always necessary:  more cash donations.  Here's a link to their online donation page.  If you prefer to call, you can click through to get the phone number from that page too.  There are two ways to make sure the money you donate goes toward the Canton-Eustace recovery efforts.  The Red Cross says to choose either the  "disaster relief" or "local Red Cross" options when you make an online contribution.  They point out that while "disaster relief" doesn't specifically reference geographic areas, that's the first fund local Red Cross outlets go to for the dollars needed immediately after events like these.

 

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