·event
PLEX for GOOD - Storm Relief (2011)
Image: CCP Games · (c) CCP Games (used under CCP fan-content policy)
PLEX for Good's first drive for a non-Asian disaster - $32,900 to the Red Cross for relief efforts following the late-April 2011 US Super Outbreak, the deadliest US tornado event in nearly a century.
PLEX for GOOD - Storm Relief (2011)
The week of 25-28 April 2011 saw the 2011 Super Outbreak - a multi-day cluster of severe storms and tornadoes across the southern, midwestern, and eastern United States. With over 360 confirmed tornadoes including four EF5s, it was the deadliest US tornado outbreak since 1925: roughly 324 people killed, thousands injured, and entire towns (Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Smithville, Mississippi; Hackleburg, Alabama) functionally destroyed.
CCP launched PLEX for Good: Storm Relief on 3 May 2011, running through 23:59 UTC on 16 May 2011. Donations were routed to the Red Cross for US storm and tornado relief operations. The drive raised $32,900 - the smallest result of the four 2010-2011 drives, but notable as the programme's first response to a disaster outside of Asia.
For perspective: this drive came roughly seven weeks after the 2011 Japan drive ($44,607) and represented two PLEX for Good campaigns inside three months - the tightest cadence the programme would maintain until the 2020 Australia / COVID double-bill nine years later. After the May 2011 storm-relief drive, the programme would lie dormant for two and a half years until Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013.
For EVE-history context: this drive ran in the immediate run-up to the Incarna expansion (June 2011) and the Summer 2011 player riots - the ironic pairing where CCP was simultaneously running a community-goodwill charity drive and preparing the NEX store launch that would trigger one of the worst player-relations crises in EVE's history.