Rapid response after the tornado

To the editor:

I spent Saturday near Crosstown trying to help our neighbors and friends uncover what was left of their possessions and grieve with them over what was forever lost. We tried to assure our friends that greater things would somehow rise from destruction.

A little over a year ago, I stood frustrated by the Red Cross and feeling helpless as I and many others tried to do something productive for the evacuees of Katrina. The true volunteers at the Red Cross were more frustrated than any of us and withstood fierce criticism.

My friend's property is 3 miles on gravel roads from Crosstown. The tornado struck late Friday afternoon. My friend told me about her first encounter with the Red Cross.

The family was sitting there trying to absorb what had just happened when here came through mud and around debris this once white SUV, all the doors flying open at the same time and five people coming out of the vehicle with water, food, blankets and tarps, seeing if anyone needed medical assistance. They had to be riding the tail of that tornado.

Our local Red Cross has made great strides toward ensuring the welfare of our people in one short year. They just kept coming, wave after wave over the days that followed, as did private citizens, all reaching out to help each other, to help ourselves be all that we can we be.

LOUISE SLOAN, Jackson