Storms in South leave a trail of death and damages, Advance set up to help

April 28, 2011—The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has been in contact throughout the night and this morning with bishops and disaster response personnel in annual conferences hit by last night’s storms and tornadoes to assess damages and next steps to assist communities in need.

According to news reports, at least 178 people died in the storms that raced across five southern states, destroying homes and businesses and wiping out electrical power. Casualties are expected to climb.

Alabama’s fifth largest city, Tuscaloosa, was among the hardest hit, as the National Weather Service tracked 137 tornadoes across the region. The storm system is climbing northward, and there are flash flood alerts for New Jersey and New York.

At the start of the 2011 spring storms season, an unprecedented number of severe storms, including tornadoes, hail, and high winds, has raced across the United States, provoking widespread damage and flooding in the South and Central regions.

The month of April alone has seen more than 7,000 such storms, which produced nearly 600 tornadoes. Rivers, including the Mississippi, are at record 100-year-flood levels. The cleanup and recovery from this series of events will take years.

Your gift to US Spring Storms 2011, UMCOR Emergency Advance #3021326, is urgently needed to help those affected by this severe weather. If you are making a donation at your local church, please use the Nebraska Conference Advance number 680 (using this number will help ensure that your church receives credit for the donation). One hundred percent of every Advance gift goes to the designated cause; this is made possible through One Great Hour of Sharing.

Click here to give now.

Note to those making online donations: Want Your Local Church To Get Credit? You can give your local church credit for your online gift later on during the checkout process on UMCOR's website. Just look for the checkbox on the page where you enter your Name and Address.