By Matt Kelley (Radio Iowa)

Emergency responders are stretched thin after Friday’s severe storms spun off at least 17 tornadoes in Iowa, damaging dozens of homes and claiming a life in Minden.

Josh Murray, communications director for the American Red Cross – Nebraska-Iowa Region, says it was a massive storm system that left a tremendous amount of damage in its wake, in multiple counties.

“All the way from into Nebraska and all the way across through the Des Moines area and a little bit into eastern Iowa, so it’s been busy,” Murray says. “The focus right now is on getting some connections made with those who have been affected, getting them some relief supplies, cleanup supplies, and then setting up some casework that’ll help them get on the road to recovery, so, what are their needs going forward and how can we support those.”

The agency’s big white vans are known as emergency response vehicles, or ERVs, and they’ve all been deployed across the region.

“We’ve been creative by using other vehicles that we have,” Murray says. “We have some vans and things like that we’ve loaded up supplies in to get people around. All of our emergency response vehicles are activated and out there but we’re getting creative and using all our vehicles as much as we can and making sure we can get to where we need to be.”

Many of the Red Cross emergency shelters that were opened in Nebraska and Iowa over the weekend have already closed. Murray says that’s a good thing as they’re designed to provide immediate relief for those who’ve lost their homes, and help them transition to something more permanent. For Iowans who’d like to help with the relief effort, Murray says there are several avenues.

“Go to redcross.org/donate and make a donation. That would help us. That’s really the best way for us to address the needs,” Murray says. “Different areas need different things so instead of providing goods or something that might not be what that area needs, the financial donations allow us to be more flexible with what we need to address, what someone needs in this location compared to another location.”

Some Iowans may want to become more involved in helping their neighbors to bounce back from this — and future — disasters.

“If you want to volunteer, you can sign up. I can’t guarantee you’ll be able to help this time, but you will be ready next time,” Murray says. “We have our trained volunteers out helping right now, but definitely, this will happen again and we’ll need more volunteers, so it’s definitely a good opportunity to consider where you can help for the next time.”

Donations can also be made over the phone by calling 1-800-HELP NOW.