Austinites aid tornado relief

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A group of area churches has come together to help the victims of last week's tornado outbreak.

Volunteers from Georgetown's Celebration Church  spent Saturday at RunTex on Riverside collecting donations. They plan to deliver them late next week.

"We can make a huge difference as one in moving forward," said Derick Zwerneman, who is helping organize the church's efforts.

Celebration is partnering with dozens of other area churches through the Austin Disaster Relief Network . They plan to collect a second offering Sunday to go towards the cleanup efforts in Alabama.

The group has partnered with a church in Birmingham to distribute the donated goods.

"People in Austin are very much wanting to help others," said Larry Steele with ARDN. The organization started to help after Katrina, since then it's focused locally on the aftermath of Hermine and the Oak Hill fire.

Steele said the images in the Southeast remind him of Katrina's aftermath.

"It's huge, it's just huge. It's probably the worst disaster we've experienced in the US of this sort," he said. "Why shouldnt (we) be over there helping instead of sitting here looking at it on TV."

The groups ask for donations of things like diapers, canned food and bottled water, batteries and trash bags.

So far they have three donation sites set up:

RunTex Austin
422 W Riverside Drive, Austin, TX
Sunday May 1st 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Monday May 2nd-Wednesday, May 4th: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Celebration Westinghouse Campus
1202 Rabbit Hill Road, Georgetown, TX
Sunday May 1st-Wednesday, May 4th: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Celebration Northwest Campus
2121 Cypress Creek Road, Cedar Park, TX
Sunday, May 1st, 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

The American Red Cross of Central Texas is also helping with the relief efforts. Right now the organization has four volunteers and two staff members in Mississippi. That number could grow to 30.

"At the end of the day we're here to help our neighbors, as long as we have the people who can help things here, we're more than happy to send experts to our neighbors," said Amir Roohi with the Red Cross.

You can donate to the Red Cross through its website , or by texting REDCROSS to 90999.