BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE
The Thursday night before the tornado hit Stafford County, former firefighter Dave McGee went to sleep listening to storm alerts.
The next morning, he woke up and heard the storm had hit Stafford and not Spotsylvania County, where he lives. McGee immediately called the Rappahannock Area Red Cross, where he had just finished training as a volunteer.
He soon headed out to the England Run neighborhood in southern Stafford, where he spent the next two days assessing damage to homes.
McGee was one of 55 Red Cross volunteers who ran a shelter, fed residents and first-responders, handed out cleaning supplies, assessed damages and helped victims with clothes and housing.
The volunteers worked with the Salvation Army to feed storm victims and those who helped them Friday through Monday after the tornado ripped through the Stafford neighborhood May 8, destroying 40 homes and damaging more than 100.
They also handed out water, comfort kits and 150 cleaning kits to residents as they came back into the neighborhood to straighten up after the storm. The comfort kits had toiletries such as toothpaste, shampoo and deodorant for those who had to leave their homes.
The cleaning kits had buckets, brooms, bleach and brushes.
Between the kits, clothes and other supplies for displaced people, the Red Cross spent about $5,000 in the relief efforts. The agency has raised about half that, said Carolina Camargo, public support director for the local chapter.
Amy Flowers Umble:
Email: aumble@freelancestar.com
To donate to the Rappahannock Area Chapter of the Red Cross, mail checks to: 4836 Southpoint Parkway, Fredericksburg, Va. 22408. With a credit card call: 540/735-0506 or donate online: rappahannockarea.red cross.org. |