Thank you, twicks. You’re awesome!
And thanks to the others who have donated or helped as well!
Now that I’ve seen this thread, donation made!
Donated!
Thank you guys so much!
I spent most of the day in one of the disaster areas. I’ve never seen anything remotely like the utter devastation that hit this town. It was a quiet, tiny little town in an out of the way part of a very rural state. The town is gone now for all practical intents and purposes. It looks like somebody took a giant weed whacker right through the center of town. The scoreboard from the high school football field was found today…in a neighboring state. There’s a water tower with a scrape and a dent at the top. A sheriff’s deputy told me that happened when a car bounced off the top of the water tower. The same car was later found upside down in a pond.
FEMA is there in force…with teams coming in from as far away as Idaho, because the local teams are completely swamped with the same scene in multiple towns across several states. Saw the Red Cross, Salvation Army, church groups from neighboring states. Did not see any media. They’ll be going to the bigger places, more conveniently located.
I felt…pretty useless…today. Clean up has barely begun. People are still in shock, looking after immediate needs like food, shelter, medicine. The time for legal help will be in the weeks and months to come. I’m proud to say my employer will be participating in a major way with the legal end of things, with me as the local point of contact. Passed out a lot of flyers and business cards. Really wanted to grab a hammer and try to do something useful.
Folks, if you’ve got a few bucks that you can spare…these people need help bad. They’ve lost everything. Whole neighborhoods are reduced to slabs and mounds of rubble. Telephone poles snapped like toothpicks. You do not want to know what the trailer park looked like. Debris everywhere. I’m almost at a loss for words. Please help if you can.
I donated through my favorite disaster charity - Portlight Strategies. They specialize in helping the underserved and disabled after a disaster. I know a few of the guys from Weather Underground - they have some amazing contacts, and can just get stuff done. Since they’re small, they focus on making a real difference for a few people…but they’re good at finding the people who need it.
I’m proud to be part of two communities that get involved…WU and this one.
There are three aerial tours of just three tornadoes that hit Alabama from this web site. Inside the line is devastation. Outside and the houses/trees remain intact.
Once again, thanks so much to all of you who have helped. And those aerial photos are amazing, Duckster.
Just saw this thread, and it reminded me I had not yet donated. So I did.
I seem to remember that posting the amount of the donation upsets you, so I won’t. 
(long time ago)
I sent a box of batteries, toiletries, cat food, etc to the St. Mark UMC in Northport, AL - they have a shelter there and use these items directly.
This thread has stayed alive long past the time when I thought it would be unstickied. Thank you for that, and thanks very much again to all those who have donated. I went to Tuscaloosa this weekend, and it’s still absolutely incredible. My brother in law showed me where a quick oil change place had been. It’s pretty much just a slab now. Apparently, several mechanics had taken shelter in the oil change pit, with cars over them. The cars were destroyed, and every one of the mechanics were sucked out of the pit and killed. 
There was another place where a minivan was driven into a rock face probably 80 feet above the road. The apartments I used to live in are gutted wrecks.
The scale of destruction is absolutely incredible. It’s difficult to believe, standing in the middle of it.
I’m going to unstick this thread now. Hope recovery is coming along well for everyone.