Seeing your hometown ravaged by a tornado is heartwrenching. Being thousands of miles away and watching the destruction on television, not being able to help family members and friends, is even more painful.

“It’s extremely difficult not to be right there, working alongside community members,” said Stormy Miller, a native of Alabama who moved to San Diego four years ago. “I’ve tried to shift my energy toward what I can do right here in San Diego to bring attention to what’s going on in Tuscaloosa, and how I can contribute.” Born and raised in Tuscaloosa, Miller attended the University of Alabama for both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and many of her family and friends were directly affected by the vicious tornadoes that ripped through the city of approximately 93,000 people on April 27.

These sentiments, the struggle of being far away and seeing your city ruined, is what motivated New York City resident Leah Bromley, also originally from Tuscaloosa, to quickly create a response website. She purchased the domain names Rebuild Alabama and Rebuild Tuscaloosa, and set up a Facebook site to serve as a hub for people to ask questions about how and where to donate. She wanted people across the country to serve as area coordinators, said Miller, which is how she became involved in the relief effort in San Diego.

Because of the haste in which the organization was created, it is not yet a non-profit, so Rebuild Alabama has partnered with the Tuscaloosa Disaster Relief Fund, established by the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce Foundation Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization.

The first San Diego fundraiser will be held Thursday, May 12, at Quality Social, 789 Sixth Ave., in the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown San Diego. “I approached venues that I really like and I think they do good business,” said Miller. “Quality Social works well with nonprofits and supports different charities.” She says the management was very responsive to hosting an event and created a special event menu for the fundraiser, held 6-9 p.m. For every item sold off the special menu, $2 will be donated to the disaster relief fund. Donations will be taken at the door via cash or check, and there will be laptop stations around Quality Social where people can donate via Paypal. Local businesses, such as Lula Mae Flowers in Little Italy and KOR Strength and Conditioning in Hillcrest, have donated prizes for a raffle.

Before the event, Miller and her co-coordinator, Paul Agustin, set a fundraising goal for the San Diego branch of Rebuild Alabama. “We’re halfway at our goal of $1,000 already, and the event hasn’t even started yet,” said Miller. She says her coworkers, as well as Agustin’s, have been generous in helping their cause.

More than 300 people were killed across five states during the storms, and 229 of those were in Alabama, including children and university students. The city of Tuscaloosa will be cleaning up debris for six months. As many as a million homes and businesses were left without power in Western Alabama, and hundreds of residents remain displaced.

“While our families are safe, alive and their homes are ok, we have friends that don’t have a place to go to for work because it was destroyed,” said Miller. “There’s lots of emotional devastation. Forty-one individuals lost their lives (in Tuscaloosa). People are just trying to move past the loss and rebuild the city.”

The money raised by the event at Quality Social, and future events such as a benefit concert, will go directly toward relief efforts like clean-up, food, shelter and emergency services.

“Paul is going back home on May 19 and will deliver all of the donations to the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce,” said Miller.

In addition to their coworkers, Miller and Agustin have reached out via Facebook to University of Alabama alumni that live in San Diego and expect a strong attendance at Quality Social at the Thursday event.

They’re also relying on the downtown business crowd to pack Quality Social.

“I wanted it to be more of a happy hour, where people would just come after work,” said Miller. “This is a public event, and we want to get as many people as we can from San Diego to show their support.”

Visit Quality Social 6-9 p.m. on May 12 to make a donation, or visit rebuildtuscaloosa.org for information on how to donate via mail or online.