[General] Quick update on the tornadoes.

[Justin Richards]

I was working radio communications and coordinating about 200 volunteers on
sunday helping to clean up an area hit by an EF4 tornado. KJ4SVL and I
(KJ4WTR) were the main communication at this site, getting water, food and
supplies (tarps, nails, tools, ladders, chainsaws, heavy equipment, etc) out
to the people volunteering. Nobody here knew any of the homeowners, but that
didnt stop anyone from helping out. The American Red Cross was out helping
the homeowners get things they needed, such as clothes, and a place to
sleep. Outback steakhouse was out cooking food for the volunteers and the
homeowners.

Just as an FYI, the red cross needs blood, and any donations of
non-perishable food, medical supplies, money, or clothing. If you want to
know where to take these, contact me.

Ive also put about 600 miles on my bike driving around spotting gas
stations, pharmacies, grocery stores and banks and reporting those in over
the radio so the information could be distributed to local media and the
general public.

I also want to thank all the local hams for their awesome work in both storm
spotting and the cleanup effort. Their work saved many lives on wednesday by
passing information about storms to the national weather service, and has
been making many more lives better by helping the families clean up, as well
as staffing medical clinics and getting needed supplies, including insulin
and tetanus vaccine where it needs to be.

Thank you HARC, NARA, North Alabama ARES/RACES, and VOAD for all the hard
work and support, as well as WX4JRR, WX4HUN, W4HMC, and all the others for
the great work on the radio.

 Heres a link to the area: http://goo.gl/maps/m6v0

 Heres a link to images from the cleanup site:
http://ratmandu.imgur.com/tornado_damage

Doris drive is where I was stationed.

I will be putting together a ham radio class at the shop if anyone is
interested in getting into the hobby. It is a great thing to get into, both
for good conversation, and for helping the community in times of disaster.
If you are interested in the class, or just amateur radio in general, let me
know. I will also put together a presentation for this friday's 2600
meeting. As some of you may know, there are already several members at the
shop who are ham radio operators. And I will be putting together a small ham
shack at the shop that any licensed operator can use, as well as filing with
the FCC to get a club callsign.

Thats all for now, feel free to pass this as needed and get the word out
about donations to anyone that can help.
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