(MOBILE, Ala.) - A Mobile County disaster relief ministry said, beginning this weekend, they will spend every weekend cleaning up debris and helping tornado victims in Northern Alabama.
Volunteers for Overflow International, a non-profit disaster relief ministry, spent this past Sunday scouting devastated areas in Tuscaloosa and Pleasant Grove looking for places to begin cleaning up.
The organization is accepting donations to help finance their work. They are also looking for volunteers and equipment to help clear debris, and give food and water to victims.
Ministry President and Owner Neal Howard said he started the organization in 2005, after he and several volunteers traveled to Biloxi to help with the relief effort following Hurricane Katrina.
Since then, Howard said, they have offered their assistance in Baton Rouge after Hurricane Gustav, and in Southern Texas after Hurricane Ike.
Overflow International recently spent three weeks helping residents in tornado-stricken Leakesville, MS.
Howard said he knows others would do the same for him and his neighbors if a hurricane hit Mobile, and that he is just "paying it forward."
"A lot of the homes that collapsed, there's still important paperwork, pictures and valuables to the owners in there," Howard said. "We can go and help them physically get inside that house, and recover some of that stuff."
Howard said the most rewarding aspect of his work is seeing smiles on the faces of those victims he, and the other volunteers, care for.
"It gives you a chance to interact with these people who, a lot of times, just need somebody to talk to," Howard said. "To see them smile or just, you know, get some of their possessions back, that's enough."
If you want to help the ministry group, or make a donation, we have posted a link under the "find it" section of Local15tv.com.
