American Red Cross
Mid-Missouri Chapter
1805 West Worley St.
Columbia, MO 65203
573-445-9411 (phone)
800-359-8829
573-446-4247 (fax)

 


Mid-Missouri Red Cross Chapter assists victims of recent
“Mother’s Day Weekend” tornados in Oklahoma and southwest Missouri

May 15, 2008 ---  Although the recent “Mother’s Day Weekend” tornados in Oklahoma and southwest Missouri occurred several hundred miles away, the Mid-Missouri Red Cross has been lending a hand to help some of those tornado victims and their families.

Specifically, the Mid-Missouri Chapter was asked by the National Red Cross to send a disaster services volunteer to southwest Missouri, to assist with providing Red Cross recovery casework services and financial assistance to families affected by the tornado that caused damage in and around Seneca, Missouri.

Additionally, the Mid-Missouri Chapter staff is assisting a tornado victim from Picher, Oklahoma, who was life-flighted to the University of Missouri Hospital in Columbia earlier this week. The victim, a woman who suffered multiple major injuries, is still in serious condition at that Columbia hospital.

The victim’s husband, a 911 operator in Picher, was not seriously injured by the tornado but has also traveled to Columbia to be at his wife’s side. The couple has three adult sons who are also traveling back and forth from other cities to visit their mother at the University hospital, and to sort through the damage and rubble back in Picher. The couple’s home in Picher was completely destroyed.

The Mid-Missouri Chapter is continuing to help these transplanted tornado victims from Oklahoma while they are in the Mid-Missouri area. Because the victim was life-flighted away because of her injuries, and because their home was destroyed, the couple has only a few of their regular possessions with them currently in Columbia.

The Red Cross has helped them by providing for their essential, basic needs that resulted because of this disaster. The Mid-Missouri Chapter will continue to assist with their ongoing needs locally as they occur – providing local staff support for basic needs, as well as mental health counseling and other additional services as needed.
  
“The Red Cross response to these Mother’s Day weekend tornados, like the thousands of other emergencies we respond to across the country every year, has been immediate, well-organized and structured,” said Mike Odneal, Executive Director of the Mid-Missouri Chapter. “The chapters located in those affected areas in Oklahoma and southwest Missouri have handled the initial response extremely well, and now our chapter has been called upon to provide additional assistance – which we’re always happy and proud to do.”
 
“Tornados are one of the many types of disasters – large and small -- that our local chapter staff members and volunteers are constantly preparing for and responding to,” added Odneal. “We hope that these types of large disasters don’t occur in our Mid-Missouri area – but the people of our area always need to be ready to respond to the emergency needs and financial impact that devastating disasters cause.”

For additional information about the American Red Cross, the Mid-Missouri Chapter and the services it provides, or to make a financial donation, please visit www.redcross-midmo.org or call (573) 445-9411 or toll-free (800) 359-8829.

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All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of thousands of disasters across the country each year, disasters like the tornadoes across Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to victims of disaster. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster please do so at the time of your donation. Call 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P. O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013. Internet users can make a secure online contribution by visiting www.redcross.org.
 
The Mid-Missouri Chapter of the American Red Cross serves the residents of 7 Mid-Missouri counties: Boone, Carroll, Chariton, Cooper, Howard, Randolph and Saline. The American Red Cross helps people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. Last year, almost a million volunteers and 35,000 employees helped victims of almost 75,000 disasters; taught lifesaving skills to millions; and helped U.S. service members separated from their families stay connected. Almost 4 million people gave blood through the Red Cross, the largest supplier of blood and blood products in the United States. The Red Cross is not a government agency; it relies on donations of time, money, and blood to do its work.