On April 27th, 23 tornadoes ravaged the South as the second deadliest storms in United States history.

As of writing, across the hardest hit areas in the state of Alabama, power is still out and searches for missing people are still underway with over 236 dead.

The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, in an area of the state severely damaged, has cancelled classes for the remainder of this school year and delayed graduation from this month until August.
Here across East Alabama, many lives were lost and homes destroyed.

After the storms passed, I saw firsthand many of the devastated areas across Calhoun and Cherokee Counties, as well as Tallapoosa County. I am returning to these and other areas soon.

People living in these counties, along with Coosa and Talladega, are eligible for individual disaster assistance by the Federal government. That will help, but more must be done.

The damage we all have seen is unbelievable. All of our hearts go out to the families who lost loved ones and those who lost their homes and businesses.

My office is assisting however we can, on the ground and in devastated communities.

Through these tragedies, we have seen people come together.  Strangers working to help other strangers, an outpouring of donations and supplies, and spontaneous efforts of so many to donate funds to help support victims and their families.

FEMA has been on the ground to help, along with the good people of the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and countless other groups helping with the response. FEMA may be contacted at 800-621-3362 or go to www.DisasterAssistance.gov.

If anyone you know is having trouble getting the assistance they need, please let me or any of my offices know and we will provide any assistance we can.

I know through this tragedy, the South will rebuild, and folks will come back stronger than ever because we are Americans and we are resilient.

This was evident just this week, when almost a decade after the terrorist attacks on our own soil, the world’s most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, was killed.

Ten years after close to 3,000 lives were lost and our country changed forever, justice was served.
It proves that we, the American people, can be brought down, but can’t be kept down.  We are fighters, we are hard workers and we are believers.

All of us across East Alabama should continue praying for the victims and families of these horrific storms.

But we should find hope in seeing neighbors who have never met lend a helping hand and folks across the country coming together to assist those affected by the storms.

We are Americans, we are resilient and we will overcome the tragedies of April 27th.

As always, feel free to contact me on this or any issue at www.mike-rogers.house.gov, become a fan on Facebook at Congressman Mike D. Rogers, follow me on Twitter at RepMikeRogersAL and subscribe to my YouTube page at MikeRogersAL03.