Saturday, April 30, 2011

Local Red Cross Volunteers Help in Alabama

The devastating tornadoes that hit the South Wednesday are now the second deadliest outbreak in U.S. history with 339 fatalities.
In 1925, 747 people were killed in a line of storms that ripped through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
Emergency buildings are wiped out, and in one neighborhood, the storms even left firefighters to work without a truck.
Alabama suffered the most destruction from the tornadoes with at least 248 deaths. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley says 1,700 people were injured by the tornadoes.

The American Red Cross of Southwestern Pennsylvania has deployed 2 emergency response vehicles (ERV) and 4 volunteers to Hoover, Alabama to help victims of the storms. The volunteers, Phil Shumway of Carnegie, Tom Palmquist of Bethel Park, Kenneth Brown of Pleasant Hills and Carole Magargee of Greenville, Mercer County left last night and are driving the ERV's to Alabama. They will assist with the mobile feeding of victims. Their deployments are expected to last 2 to 3 weeks but the Red Cross says the ERV's could remain on site longer.

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