At least 91 people, including 20 children, are dead after a monstrous tornado hit Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon.

The most terribly hit city is Moore, specifically the Plaza Towers Elementary School where seven children had died.

The National Weather Service reported that the tornado had generated winds of up to 200 Mph and remained on ground for about 45 minutes. The tornado, estimated to be at least 2 miles wide at one point, has been the strongest to hit Oklahoma since the deadly tornado in May 1999.

Among the dead is a 3-month-old baby, a four-year-old child and 3 adults who were killed at a 7-Eleven. Local hospitals reported that more than 145 injured residents had surged into emergency rooms while around 80 National Guard Members and first responders with dogs were set out to help search for survivors.

The tornado destroyed the entire Moore neighborhood, resulting to piles of broken woods from dilapidated homes and crumpled cars and trucks on the roadside.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin expressed sympathy to the affected families over the state’s devastating tragedy. ‘Our hearts are broken for the parents that are wondering about the state of their children that had been in the schools that have been hit today. I know that there are families wondering where their loved ones are.’

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama called to offer any kind of assistance to the affected areas and declared a major disaster in Oklahoma.

As America is hit by another calamity, people have again come together in the spirit of brotherhood and community.

Here are the many ways on how you can help the residents of the tragedy-stricken state:

American Red Cross
The ARC has many shelters open in the state and Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles have started delivering hot meals throughout the affected areas. The Red Cross also has a website called Safe and Well  where it enables to link loved ones in Moore who are okay and safe. For monetary support, text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief. You can also donate online or donate by phone at 1-800-RED CROSS.

Salvation Army
This international charitable organization deploys its disaster response teams and mobile feeding units to aid residents and rescuers in Moore and other areas that were affected by tornadoes. You can donate online or text STORM to 80888 to give $10 to the organization’s relief efforts.

Operation USA
You can donate $10 to this Los Angeles-based international relief agency by texting AID to 50555. you can also donate online or by phone at 1-800-678-7255

We can all take part in rebuilding our nation wrenched by natural calamities.  Either by volunteering or by donating, we can do something significant as long as it comes from the heart.

Heavy rains in Texas over the weekend caused huge power outrages in Houston and forced marchers in San Antonio’s Fiesta Flambeau parade to halt.

Storms resulted to heavy rainfall and hail on the Greater Houston area while an annual parade in San Antonio was stopped as only two-thirds of the groups participating completed the parade route.

Moreover, hails as big as golf balls have also been cited in parts of Houston while several streets are closed in Harris County and Fort Bent County.

Because of the flooding, the Houston fire chief responded to 150 phone calls for assistance which were mostly from drivers who were stranded or whose vehicles were stalled out in rapid-moving water.

A local newspaper reported that no deaths were associated with the flash flood.

We would want to remind everybody to keep safe wherever they are and be knowledgeable of what to do when disasters happen.

Although natural calamities can be predicted by modern technology, sometimes we have no way of telling the real damage once it hits us. Therefore, we need to have back-up plans and let our family members know what they are so in case a calamity hit us, we already what to do and where to go to. After all, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Similarly, we hope that our hospitals and blood banks have enough blood supplies before natural calamities like storms and flash floods strike our areas.

The month of February has been challenging for USA, especially when snow storm Nemo whopped the Northeast and left streets with knee-deep snow. But the calamity proved to be harder for the American Red Cross, they were forced to cancel 11,500 total blood and platelet donations.

This is why the American Red Cross and other blood bank centers are urging local residents to invest time to donate blood because the country is having a significant shortfall of blood collections.

In the Midwest, almost 150 Red Cross blood drives were canceled in 13 states. Donors were expected to donate more than 4,400 units of platelets and blood while more than 6,900 blood and platelet donations were called off in the Northeast at more than 150 blood drives.

Eligible donors are urged to make a donation and be someone’s hero, but donors with Types O-, O+, A- and B- are the ones in demand. People with Type O- blood are the universal donors so their blood can be given to any blood type. There is a great need for enough supplies of O negative in hospitals because it’s often used in emergency situations when there’s no time to determine the patient’s blood type.

The need for blood is constant but because of natural calamities like typhoons and snow storms, blood drives are canceled. When blood drives are canceled (lately in the  hundreds),  blood shortages is bound to happen across the country. Blood shortage means the lives of people compromised since they depend on blood transfusions.

The flu season is one of the reasons why there’s a threat for blood shortage, there were a lot of donors who weren’t able to give blood because of it.

Many people still don’t grasp the importance of blood donations because they haven’t experienced the need for a blood transfusion in their life. Consider anyone lucky if this were the case, statistics shows that in every two seconds, someone in the US needs blood. That someone may be a car accident victim, a cancer patient, or a mother giving birth or be in a worse case of losing blood. Having enough blood supplies at hospitals give those faceless people another day to live. Wouldn’t you want to be one of the heroes they need?

Blood shortages are the scene we are trying to prevent across the nation, so if you are eligible enough to give blood, please schedule an appointment and lend an arm! Time is ticking, I hope you put blood donation in your top to-do list before another calamity strikes yet again.