Local emergency management has requested that Mercy Chefs serve as the PRIMARY provider of meals in response to the devastating EF-3 tornado that ripped through Fultondale earlier this week. This means we must immediately expand our efforts, and I need your help.
Yesterday, we served our first meals and today we are deploying a second mobile kitchen to Fultondale. This community has been hit with widespread damage including dozens of injuries and possible permanent destruction to a local high school. Our focus is to provide hot meals to all of the victims, first responders, debris removal crews, and other volunteers.
Mercy Chefs has been given a major responsibility by Alabama officials, and I must respond. Will you help me TODAY to meet the needs of those impacted by this tornado as we expand our response so we can provide more meals and serve more people? Go here to make your tax-deductible gift.
I'll have more details soon. Thanks in advance for your help right now.
God bless,
Gary LeBlanc, Mercy Chefs
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(Original message)
Wednesday A.M.
On Monday evening, a powerful tornado ripped through Fultondale, Alabama, leaving one dead and several injured along a 10-mile path of damage and destruction.
+ + "Like a bomb went off"
One local resident was quoted in USA Today as saying it "looks like a bomb went off." Another said the tornado sounded "like a freight train coming full speed." Aerial footage shows neighborhoods that were devastated by the tornado, with houses ruined beyond repair.
Mercy Chefs is responding by deploying our mobile kitchen that is based in nearby Birmingham (pictured here). We will be partnering with Church of the Highlands which has a campus in Fultondale. As I write, our team is assessing the damage to determine our specific response as we serve victims, first responders, debris removal crews and other volunteers as needed.
We are issuing this call to all our team members as we respond to the first disaster of 2021. Mercy Chefs is deploying to Fultondale, and we need your prayers and your financial support! Please go here to make a tax-deductible gift to Mercy Chefs as we respond in Alabama and continue other vital efforts:
I expect our team will be serving meals for LUNCH TODAY. With disasters like this, often the first 72 hours are most crucial as emergency resources strain to manage the critical needs.
Thank you so much for making it possible for Mercy Chefs to respond immediately when disaster strikes.
God bless,
Gary LeBlanc, Mercy Chefs
P.S. Our costs during these first hours after we announce a deployment are always high as we must mobilize our equipment, chefs and support staff, in addition to purchasing all the food for the initial response. Please help! And pray for the community of Fultondale which has been hit hard by this tornado. Go here to donate:
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