The first of what may be dozens of American Red Cross workers from Iowa leaves today for one of the tornado-whipped states in the southeastern U-S. Marvin Shultz, Emergency Services Director for the Central Iowa chapter, will be a Government Liaison officer, based in Birmingham, Alabama, for the next several weeks. He’ll be working with federal, state, and county emergency management, helping to organize relief to affected families as efficiently as possible. Shultz is a former paramedic and a former county emergency management official in Iowa and he’s been assigned to many disasters in the past. He says many Iowans signed on with the Red Cross after seeing the outpouring of help from so many other states during the devastating floods of 1993. More than 400 homes were damaged in Alabama alone. At least 35 people are dead, more than 200 injured, from the series of 70 tornadoes that tore across nine states earlier this week. Tornadoes hit: Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Iowans who want to offer financial help can call 800 GIVE LIFE.