Highway 78 East Salvage Alabama

Tornado Relief Help:

•    Pull ups

Residents and friends sorted through rubble in destroyed houses in Pratt City in the rain looking for whatever they could salvage, May 3, 2011. Carolyn Cargill looks through the rubble of an aunt’s house. While there she found and retrieved a favorite hat for her aunt.(Birmingham News/Linda Stelter) BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — As rain slowed cleanup of storm debris around Alabama on Tuesday, state officials continued to count the dead and assess the extent of the destruction left by last week’s tornadoes while federal officials made a push to get residents to sign up for aid.

Some schools reopened as legislators considered a bill that could shorten the school year for systems with schools damaged or destroyed by last week’s tornadoes.

More big names, including Actor/Comedian and Radio Personality Rickey Smiley, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the NAACP’s national president, Benjamin Jealous, came through to survey and lend their support to relief efforts.

Kindness of strangers

Donations and help continued flowing into the state. Alabama operations of Mercedes-Benz, along with its parent company, Daimler AG, announced plans to donate $1 million, while utility and telecom equipment company Altec Inc. will donate $500,000. Medical Properties Trust, a Birmingham real estate investment trust, donated $100,000.

But the big focus Tuesday remained on the effort to clear piles of debris strewn along the paths cut by the storms.

“We did all we could do yesterday (Monday) to help people with trees on their houses … and to prioritize those that needed tarps,” said John Hayes, Birmingham-area coordinator for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, one of many groups that distributed tarps to protect storm-damaged homes from the rain.

Hayes said Tuesday’s rain didn’t stop about 110 volunteers working at homes and churches scattered around the Birmingham area. The group, as of Tuesday, had completed 53 jobs and has 157 remaining on a list.

“Hopefully before the next rain hits we will have most of them covered,” Hayes said.

Restoring power

Meanwhile, more residents and businesses around Alabama had electrical service returned Tuesday. Alabama Power reported Tuesday that 98 percent of those whose power was knocked out had it restored. Statewide, 8,200 Alabama Power customers remained without service as of 8 p.m. Tuesday, including 4,450 in Jefferson and Shelby counties.

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