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From Staff Reports

A local organization is working to help citizens find information they need to recover from Thursday’s tornado. The Cemetery Preservation Group, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the restoration, preservation, and protection of Selma’s historic cemeteries, created the website https://www.disastertoolbox.com/ to give citizens a central location to help find disaster relief and aid.

Doug Buster, who heads the organization, said their organization is shifting its focus to help provide important information to people who need it now.

“We have had a lot of people calling asking about information on loved ones burial plots and such, but we feel our focus needs to be on people who have lost homes and assisting those impacted by this disaster,” Buster said. “We will get back on the cemeteries as soon as this gets better. We’ve prioritized that and we feel like this website will be a one stop place to get information.”

Buster said a website is needed to help provide more timely information rather than through Facebook, which can be spotty in its visibility to people. He also said people can add recovery effort information to the website by emailing info@cpgmail.org, but he said the group will focus attention on recovery options that are static in nature, and not short-lived.

“We’re trying to make sure the information listed on the website is valid for several days so people can get information they need, and not something that is a daily event like cooking meals for relief efforts. That’s likely better handled through a Facebook post.”