Leah Bromley watched from her New York City apartment as an EF4 tornado tore down Hargrove Road in her hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a year ago. She got a text from her mom, who lives off Hargrove road, earlier that morning. It read, “I’m in the basement. I love you.”
Thankfully her family and their home were okay, but over the next two days Leah was glued to the television. She felt helpless as she watched coverage of the devastation.
“It looked like a giant bomb went off,” she says. “That’s when I knew I wanted to do something.”
She and some friends put together a fundraiser in NYC, and in a matter of days raised over $6,000. Leah launched a Facebook page after that, which quickly became a central hub for connecting those with needs and those who could meet them.
It was the start of a movement -- Rebuild Tuscaloosa.
Leah now spends much of her time back in Tuscaloosa organizing fundraising events and working with groups like Project Blessings and the Tuscaloosa Disaster Relief Fund to provide help for Alabamans who still need it.
“I definitely feel confident that Tuscaloosa will rebuild back better,” she says. “I just really want people to remember us and to understand that there is still a really great need. We’ve barely scraped the surface.”
For more information on how you can help the rebuilding efforts in Tuscaloosa, visit Impact Your World.
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