Two nights before Easter, my family and I were trapped at a store with several other dozen people while a tornado blazed down one of our main roads. As grateful as we were that we weren’t harmed, it was still devastating to see some of the areas we love—especially in St. Louis, where even our airport took a giant hit and closed due to the damage—impacted so severely by the deadly storm.

Luckily, no one in our area died, though many were injured. Less than a week later, storms raged against the Southern states below us, and hundreds have been killed—with more being counted every few hours. Billions of dollars of damage have also occurred. A state of emergency has even been declared, with President Obama promising to come to the affected areas’ aid immediately.

I hope that the president follows through with his promises, but I also know that recovery from a tornado takes a very long time. In fact, St. Louis was still recovering from tornadoes just this past February when this happened; when we drove to South County just days before these recent storms, we could still see much of that damage.

If you’d like to help out in the affected areas and you can, please do so. I know days after the tornados, we were told that there were too many cooks in the kitchen, with too many volunteers coming right away—but now that jobs have been organized and are being delegated out, many are still needed. You can find out how to volunteer this weekend in St. Louis by clicking here; if you want to volunteer in another area, call that city’s local police or government and find out how you can help.

If you can’t offer physical aid but could afford to give a few dollars, the Red Cross is usually the best place to give. Call your local Red Cross and let them know you can to help; you can also help Alabama, which was most severely affected by the tornadoes, by clicking here. Giving blood is always appreciated during these times—as well as throughout the rest of the year, of course—and people in these areas can also use bottled water, snacks, and emergency supplies. Volunteer centers and relief agencies, however, say that the best way to help these people is to provide monetary donations so that everything that’s immediately needed gets purchased and distributed first.