Update 4: Responding to the Severe Weather & Ways to Help

Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those who've lost loved ones and those whose lives have been affected by the storms that hit the Midwest and South.

Our regional administrators have been in touch with state emergency management officials in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee, and at this time, we have not received any requests for federal assistance from the affected states.

In order to support any state requests and to coordinate our response, we've activated our National Response Coordination System in Washington, D.C. and our Regional Response Coordination Center in Chicago.

Earlier, Administrator Fugate remarked:

Our priority, as always, is to make sure that we are here to support local efforts to keep residents and communities safe. FEMA has teams on the ground in hard hit areas and is prepared to deploy additional teams and resources if needed by the states. We urge residents in impacted areas to listen carefully to instructions from their local officials. If asked to remain in shelters, homes or safe places or to avoid affected areas, please do so. Roads may be damaged or blocked by debris, and traffic jams can slow emergency managers and first responders in doing their job.

How You Can Help Tornado Survivors

The compassion and generosity of the American people is never more evident than after a disaster, and we know a lot of people are asking the question: how can I help?

Cash donations are the best way to help and we ask that you visit the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters for a list of organizations that you can feel confident in making a donation to. You can also follow NVOAD on Facebook and on Twitter @NationalVOAD.


Emergency Management Partners Response

The following are some of the things we are doing along with our emergency management partners to respond to the disaster and support the disaster survivors:

• At the requests of the states, along with the Small Business Administration, we have deployed teams to Missouri and Illinois to assist with preliminary damage assessments.These assessments identify the damages in impacted counties and to help the governor determine if additional federal support will be requested.
• A FEMA disability integration specialist was part of the preliminary damage assessment team in Missouri to assess the needs of people with disabilities and access and functional needs who were displaced from their independent living center.
• We have proactively deployed a federal coordinating officer to Indiana, who is serving as a liaison to the Indiana Emergency Operations Center to provide support to the state and to assist in coordination efforts as the state continues to respond to the recent storms.Incident Management Assistance Team and eleven community relations teams have also been proactively deployed to Indiana to assist with situational awareness following the storms and to support the state as requested.
• At all times, we maintain commodities, including millions of liters of water, millions of meals and hundreds of thousands of blankets, strategically located at distribution centers throughout the United States and its territories if needed.
• We have also coordinated with the Department of Defense and established a national Incident Support Base in Kentucky to stage commodities in strategic locations close to the impacted areas, if needed and requested by the state. More than 98,000 meals and 146,000 liters of water are en route to the Incident Support Base.
• Many local governments and voluntary agencies, such as the American Red Cross and Salvation Army, are providing shelter to disaster survivors who have been displaced from the storms.

We urge residents in impacted areas to listen carefully to instructions from their local officials and take the recommended protective measures to safeguard life and property while response efforts continue. Listen to state and local officials who ask you to remain in shelters, homes or safe places until they give the “all clear” to travel. Roads are very likely to be damaged or blocked by debris, and traffic jams slow emergency managers and first responders as they attempt to reach hard-hit areas.

Visit Weather.gov and mobile.weather.gov on your mobile device for the latest weather forecast from the National Weather Service.

Visit Ready.gov or Listo.gov for more information on tornado and flood safety tips. If you have a Blackberry, Android or Apple device, you can download the FEMA app to access safety tips, shelter locations, and more.