Assistance for Tornado Survivors, Ways to Help, and Job Opportunities

We have resources! (Updated 5-8-11)


Assistance for Tornado Survivors, Ways to Help, and Job Opportunities

Jefferson County, Alabama

Get a downloadable list (PDF) here.

Call 2-1-1 in Alabama for assistance/information of any kind.
En español: HICA helpline 866-502-4422; La Casita:

FEMA/Federal Emergency Management Agency (www.fema.gov)
800-621-3362 / TTY 800-462-7585

The FEMA disaster recovery centers In Jefferson County are located at:
- Union Hill Baptist Church, 7049 Taylors Ferry Road, Bessemer, Ala.
- National Guard Armory, 140 Cane Creek Road, Warrior, Ala.
- In front of the Ashley Furniture Store on Lowery Parkway in Fultondale, Ala.

Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency
205-254-2039

Alabama Possible website - Alabama tornado relief: How you can help (http://alabamapossible.org/2011/04/tornado-relief-how-you-can-help)

Alabama Department of Insurance
800-433-3966

Major Insurance Co. Claims Departments
- State Farm 800-732-5246
- ALFA 800-964-2532
- Allstate 800-255-7828
- Farmers 800-435-7764
- USAA 800-531-8722
- Cotton States 866-714-6902
- Auto Owners 517-323-1200
- Geico (auto) 800-861-8380
- Progressive 800-776-4737
- Travelers 800-252-4633
- Nationwide 800-421-3535

Social Security Benefits
800-772-1213 / 800-325-0778 (TTY)

Red Cross
800-Help Now

Salvation Army
205-328-5656

Lost & Found Pet Hotline
205-397-8534

Alabama Power Residential Customer Service
800-245-2244

Alagasco
- To report a gas leak, line break, etc. 800-292-4008
- Customer Service 800-292-4008

Birmingham Water Works Board
205-244-4000

Alabama Dept. of Public Safety (http://dps.alabama.gov)
Get duplicate or renewed driver licenses destroyed in the storms
334-242-4400 (Menu Option)

Volunteer Opportunities
- Hands on Birmingham 2-1-1
- Salvation Army 205-328-2420

Tornado Recovery Jobs
- Alabama Joblink (https://joblink.alabama.gov)
- Birmingham Career Center 205-254-1300
- Lawson State Community College Bessemer Campus 205-929-3501 

Other resources:

- Al.com "Alabama Tornadoes: How you can help victims of Wednesday's deadly storms (updated)"
- Al.com "Alabama Woman's Facebook Page Reconnects Tornado Victims with Personal Items"

Alabama Author Gin Phillips Wins Award

Gin Phillips, an Alabama author, has won the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award for The Well and the Mine. 

The Discover Awards honor the works of exceptionally talented writers featured in the Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" program during the previous year. In 2008, the Discover Great New Writers program featured the work of 63 previously unheralded fiction and non-fiction writers. --from Reuters website

"The Well and the Mine is an enthralling book, enthralling in the best way, without a whiff of showoffy pyrotechnics or earnest sentimentality. Like Willa Cather's, Phillips' language is deep, clear, strong, and true; and her characters are at once interestingly familiar, human, refreshingly strange, and complex. The novel's structure is deceptively sophisticated -- the narrative flow is so compelling, it almost obscures the subtle technical skill that went into its making. The Well and the Mine is pure pleasure to read, and achieves the quietest but most rewarding of literary endeavors: a good story, well told. Gin Phillips is truly a great new American writer." ~Kate Christensen, author of The Great Man --from Barnes & Noble website

Gin Phillips will be at the Author Award Luncheon at the ALLA (Ala. Library Assoc.) conference in April! You can reserve her book in the catalog.

Stimulus Watch: Projects in Alabama

Stimulus Watch: Projects in Alabama

The "shovel-ready" projects the mayors of this state submitted in the 2008 U.S. Conference of Mayors report are shown on this website. You can click on a project to read (and add to) its description. You can also discuss the project and vote on whether you believe it is critical or not. For a more local view, you can drill down to projects in a city from the following list: Anniston • Auburn • Bessemer • Birmingham • Decatur • Florence • Gadsden • Huntsville • Mobile • Prichard • Tuscaloosa.

The total cost of all the projects submitted by Alabama is $3,675,416,049.

How do you use Stimulus Watch? Watch the video tour!

StimulusWatch.org was built to help the new administration keep its pledge to invest stimulus money smartly, and to hold public officials to account for the taxpayer money they spend. We do this by allowing you, citizens around the country with local knowledge about the proposed "shovel-ready" projects in your city, to find, discuss and rate those projects. These projects are not part of the stimulus bill. They are candidates for funding by federal grant programs once the bill passes. Learn more by reading the FAQs.

How can you contribute? Find a project that interests you, or about which you have special knowledge, and let us know what you think. You can find projects by searching or by browsing by locality or program type. Once you find a program, there are three things you can do: 1) vote on whether you believe the project is critical or not; 2) edit the project's description and points in favor or against, and 3) post a comment in the conversation about the project. ~from the website