Category Archives: Disaster Relief

Blogger interview with World Vision on tornado response

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Guest blogger in Disaster Relief

Family photos amidst the rubble in Joplin, Missouri. ©2011 Laura Reinhardt/World Vision

Editor’s note: On Tuesday evening, World Vision blogger Dan King conducted a Skype interview with Romanita Hairston, World Vision’s vice president of U.S. programs, about how World Vision plans to help those affected by tornadoes in the U.S. Heartland, and her recent experience in the tornado zone in Joplin, Missouri. I was sitting in the delivery room with my wife early on the morning of April 28, and we turned on the TV to pass a little time. Flipping over to the news, we saw video of a mile-wide tornado ripping through Alabama. It was part of what’s been termed the “2011 Super Outbreak.” As we were about to welcome a new life into the world, our hearts broke for...

Observations from Missouri’s tornado zone

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Phyllis Freeman in Disaster Relief

Outside Irving Elementary School in Joplin, Missouri, the devastation following the May 22 tornado is hard to comprehend. ©2011 Phyllis Freeman/World Vision

Editor’s note: Joplin, Missouri, is a small town in the U.S. Heartland. Its official population is 50,150. But now, it is tragically smaller in every sense, after the May 22 tornado that left 122 dead, 750 injured, and more than a quarter of the town destroyed. Phyllis Freeman, our domestic emergency response director, is on the ground in Joplin. I went looking for a school and found Irving Elementary School. It was mangled, the bricks blown apart. You can only think about the children who lived through this, seeing the skies turn black, hearing the roar of 200-mph winds, and watching the tornado chew things up, literally. Then they emerged to find their home gone, not knowing what’s happened to...

World Vision responds to tornadoes in central U.S.

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Mindy Mizell in Disaster Relief

Scattered debris surrounds a damaged home in a neighborhood hard hit by a devastating tornado in Joplin, Missouri May 23, 2011. Tornadoes tore through parts of the U.S. Midwest on Sunday, killing at least 30 people in Joplin, claiming another life in Minneapolis and causing extensive property damage in the region. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Mike Stone

Update, May 25, 3:44 pm: World Vision is also continuing its tornado response in Joplin, Missouri where our national domestic disaster director just completed an initial assessment of the neighborhoods impacted in Sunday’s deadly tornado. “The damage in Joplin is every bit as devastating as what we’ve been responding to......

Photo stories from tornado survivors

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Laura Reinhardt in Disaster Relief

Editor’s note: Here are a few of the latest photos from World Vision communicator Laura Reinhardt, in the American Southeast following the deadly tornadoes on April 27 that left survivors across the region without homes........

Disaster disadvantage [infographic]

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Jane Sutton-Redner in Disaster Relief

Last year’s catastrophic earthquake in Haiti was all-consuming for a time, dominating the news and mobilizing compassion from all corners of the world. During those first few months, it was hard to imagine that Haiti’s suffering could fall off the radar. But shortly after Haiti’s one-year anniversary came fresh disasters—New Zealand’s earthquake and Japan’s quake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis. Scenes of destruction in formerly functional cities, tragic stories, and the threat of radiation riveted media attention and provoked fears that something this bad could happen to us. (And then it did, with last month’s killer storms and tornadoes in the U.S. South.)...