Efforts Across UC Reach Out to Tornado Victims

After the storms cleared, it became clearer as well as to what the University of Cincinnati community is doing to help Tristate tornado victims. Reports of individual service – in an outpouring of support for the tornado victims – as well as quickly organized efforts are underway and likely to grow. Here are some details:

UC Emergency Medical Specialists Aid Rescue Workers

UC emergency medicine physicians Ed Otten, M.D., and Jason McMullan, M.D., provided medical assistance to urban search and rescue teams searching for survivors in Clermont County over the weekend.

UC Alum’s Relief Agency Responds With Truckloads of Aid

Matthew 25 Ministries began shipments on Monday to tornado victims around the Tristate. The organization also brought an assessment team to determine needs and distribution in individual communities. Matthew 25 Ministries, an international relief organization, was founded by UC alumnus Wendell Mettey, a 1968 graduate of the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences.

Graduate Student Governance Association Assists Cincinnati Metro Collections

UC’s Graduate Student Governance Association is collecting non-perishable food items, personal care items, cleaning products and first-aid supplies. Collections will be held on Friday, March 9, from 3-5 p.m., in the GSGA office, located in Room 683 of the Steger Student Life Center. Students will deliver the items on March 10 to the Hyde Park Kroger as they participate in a program to fill a Metro bus with goods for tornado victims.

UC Clermont College Supports Community Relief Efforts

UC Clermont College is taking collections through March 9 to support local community relief efforts. Collections include trash bags, trash cans, shovels, rakes, brooms, cleaning supplies, blankets and pillows that can be dropped off at various locations around Clermont’s campus. The collections will be delivered on March 9.

McMicken College Department of Communication Takes Collections

Nancy Jennings, an associate professor of communication, is leading a drive to benefit tornado victims in Moscow, Ohio. Collections are underway in Room 137, McMicken Hall. Donations will be delivered to the New Richmond Food Pantry the weekends of March 10 and March 17. Collections include cleaning products, paper towels, trash bags and trash cans, brooms, rakes, shovels and buckets, as well as personal hygiene items, baby goods (diapers, formula, new blankets) non-perishable food items and monetary donations. Collections will be underway through March 16.

Media Interview Possibilities

Donald Locasto, M.D., is director of the division of EMS in the department of emergency medicine. Locasto serves on the scientific advisory panel to the American Red Cross. He can discuss new American Red Cross recommendations that advise staying in your car when in the path of a tornado, as opposed to previous guidelines advising to leave vehicles and get into a ditch.