Alabama Rabbis Help After Twister Devastation
Power is out at Chabad-Lubavitch of Alabama and the homes of its rabbis, two of more than 400,000 Alabama Power customers whose lights went dark when storms slammed through four counties Wednesday night.
The storms, including a reported mile-wide tornado that leveled buildings in Tuscaloosa, left trails of destruction throughout the state, leading Gov. Robert Bentley to deploy 1,400 members of the National Guard. At least 128 people died in the twisters, and The Associated Press reported that 32 more passed away in neighboring Mississippi, 11 in Georgia, 14 in Tennessee and eight in Virginia.
Rabbis Yossi Posner and Yossi Friedman, respectively the director and the program director at the Chabad House in the capital of Birmingham, were thankful they and they families escaped the devastation unscathed.
“We are fine, thank G-d,” Friedman said early Thursday morning. “Our neighborhood, however, is not so good.”
Please help in the recovery and relief effort by visiting Chabad of Huntsville and Chabad of Alabama. Because of the power outage they are not able to update the website, but there is a donation link in the upper right. Please specify “Tornado relief.” This relief is for everyone who has been affected by the tornados.