Facebook reunites people with their keepsakes after the tornadoes

This story was originally covered by PRI’s Here and Now. For more, listen to the audio above.

After April’s tornadoes, Patty Bullion’s yard in Lester, Alabama, was littered with debris. When she examined the clutter, something caught her eye — an ultrasound and nearby, baby pictures. Cherished photographs had traveled as much as 150 miles to land at her front door.

“It broke my heart,” Bullion said. “I have three children of my own, and I can’t imagine not having that ultrasound. And you know, I talked to my children and they were also like me — they were heartbroken. And we had to have a way of trying to find the owner of this picture — we had to try to get it back to that mother.And of course, our initial thoughts too were, ‘I hope they’re okay.'”

She set up a Facebook page, “Pictures and Documents Found After the April 27, 2011 Tornadoes” and within a couple of hours, the page had one thousand fans and within twelve hours, the fan group had grown to twelve thousand. “The first picture was claimed within an hour,” says Bullion. “It was from Hackleburg, Alabama which is probably about 150 miles from here, roughly estimating.” People all over the state were posting to the page to reunite the treasures with their owners.

Bullion says that most items are being mailed back to the owners. Some people, however, are not only driving across the state to return keepsakes, but they’re collecting donations from their community to give the disaster survivors as well.

Beyond assisting the community actually affected by the tornadoes, the Facebook page is also enabling the public to better understand the disaster that hit the South. Bullion expresses her feelings about the stories she reads on her page:

They’re heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. And, you know, this page is not only here to help, it’s kind of giving the people that maybe are not so close to our area a glimpse into these people — they’re real. And it makes them want to help them even more than just being on a news story.

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