Western Washington responds to Oklahoma tornado

SEATTLE — Help is on the way to Oklahoma from Western Washington. Local people will be delivering supplies to the survivors and the emergency workers who are helping the tornado victims.

Seattle's "Soup Ladies" are well known to local search and rescue teams for setting up a soup kitchen when disaster strikes. Today, they packed their bags for a week-long trip to help out in tornado ravaged Oklahoma.

Soup Lady Diana Holt said, "I feel like I'm just there to feed people, to give them a hug to encourage them."

Soup Ladies founder Ginger Passarelli says it's about far more than soup.  She calls it an honor to make a hot meal for the people who give up their lives to help other people hit with tragedy.

"You look into their eyes and you see into their heart,” Passarelli said as she waited in line at Sea-Tac airport to board a flight to Oklahoma.  “And we are able to feed them. And sometimes a bowl of soup can change a person's whole outlook on things."

Lindsey Minerva who is a blogger for World Vision, the Christian relief agency in Federal Way, is going to document the agency’s effort to send supplies.  She’ll be covering World Vision’s effort for the agency's donors to read online and in social media. This is her first disaster response.

"You know, I don't really know what to expect,” Minerva said from the security line.  “I think that people have gone through something really tragic."

Another World Vision employee will head to Oklahoma later this week to coordinate the delivery of relief supplies.

KIRO