Advertisement
Last Articles
Last News
- Four Romanian Nationals Charged with Allegedly Participating in Multimillion Dollar Scheme to Hack into and Steal Credit Card Data from U.S. Merchants [12/09/2011]
- Arkansas Man Pleads Guilty to Civil Rights Offenses for Involvement in the Firebombing of Interracial Couples Home [12/09/2011]
- Operator of Detroit School and Day Care Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion [12/09/2011]
- Gaza: UN agency invites runners worldwide to take part in marathon [12/09/2011]
Birmingham tornado relief reunites Red Cross volunteers
A few hundred cots were laid out in rows atop plastic sheets covering the gym floor of the Bashinsky Fieldhouse at Samford University on Sunday.
The university is playing temporary host to about 500 American Red Cross relief workers arriving from around the country in response to the devastation left by the tornadoes. The first 186 workers arrived Saturday and 200 more were expected Sunday night, said Doug McCabe, a Red Cross volunteer shelter manager.
The workers stay one night and then are assigned to one of the storm-ravaged areas, McCabe said.
As many of the workers from states including New Jersey, Iowa, Michigan and Indiana arrived, they found some friends they hadn't seen since the previous major disaster.
"We are all family," said Bobbie Nix of Albion, Ind.
Marty Campbell, a retiree who has volunteered for the Red Cross for the past six years, was talking to Doug Drake of Altoona, Pa.
"I just saw him at the floods in New Jersey," Campbell said of Drake.
Campbell said his first mission with the Red Cross was when Hurricane Katrina hit. "All of this is something for retired people because the time spent is enormous," he said.
Not all of the volunteers are retired. McCabe, who comes from Florida, has a job. But it's his own business -- an auto racing supply business -- and he can arrange to take off.
The volunteers like what they do.
Said Linda Doran of Sioux City, Iowa: "We do what we can as fast as we can so they (the victims) get on the road to recovery faster."