REPORTER: JUSTIN KASE WRITER: PAUL DOLAN
PUBLISHED: JANUARY 13, 2023 10:52 PM EST WINK NEWS
VIDEO LINK: https://www.winknews.com/2023/01/13/marco-patriots-heading-to-alabama-to-help-with-deadly-tornadoes/
The Marco Patriots will help people in Alabama recover from a winter outbreak of tornadoes.
At least seven people died after the storm in Alabama. The Marco Patriots may go to the area of Old Kingston, where the deaths were reported.
A trailer full of supplies and equipment will be in some of the hardest hit parts of Alabama, helping people recover in the aftermath of the deadly tornadoes.
The Marco Patriots trailer loaded up ready for Alabama. CREDIT: WINK News
WINK News spoke with the Marco Patriots, who walked us through the help they will be providing just minutes before leaving on their nine-and-a-half-hour trip north to Alabama.
“Everybody’s looking for a centralized location where they can communicate to others, kind of find out what’s going on, find out where they can obtain the supplies that they need. We try to find that location and be a contributor at that point,” Marco Patriots member, Matt Melican, said.
The Marco Patriots have responded all over the country after natural disasters, cooking warm meals and handing out supplies people desperately need.
They have enough supplies to last them three days and can cook 500 to 1,000 meals a day.
“We’re going to make an evaluation when we arrive there as to what the immediate needs are. But we’re thinking blankets, clothing, food and water, essentials for children and babies. This is typically what we do,” Melican said.
For this response, their team also includes volunteers they met while responding to historic and deadly flooding in Kentucky in 2022. Melican spoke about the importance of networking with volunteers from across the country.
“We rely heavily on ground-level intelligence and information gathering. So, the more partners we can develop in this line of work, the better off we are, the better we can tailor our response,” Melican said.
WINK News also reached out to other organizations, such as the local chapter of The Red Cross and FPL, to see if they will send crews to help in the aftermath of the tornadoes.
WINK News will update you when we hear back from them.
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