Red Cross trains volunteers for disaster assessment

JACKSON, Tenn. — The American Red Cross of Mid-West Tennessee is preparing volunteers for disaster relief.

“We learned a lot, and we’re ready to do the disaster assessment as they need us right now,” Andrea Mazariegos, a Red Cross volunteer, said.

The Red Cross in Jackson held classes Thursday on disaster assessment.

“Being in the construction helped me understand a lot of it,” Larry Halliburton, a first-time Red Cross volunteer, said. “But there’s a whole lot more to assessing the damage after a disaster than you realize.”

In the class, volunteers looked at pictures of previous disasters and used those to practice making assessments.

They also learned how rising waters can severely damage buildings.

These classes are preparing the volunteers to not only help people locally during a disaster but people all across the country. They also used practice maps to help locate the destroyed buildings or homes if an emergency situation were to occur in West Tennessee.

“So definitely we’re ready to get to work, because it’s a daily thing you know, all the disasters are happening,” Mazariegos said. “We just want to get ready for everything, you know, anything that could happen in Tennessee or in another state.”

They also held a shelter fundamentals class. This class teaches the volunteers how to open, run and then shut down a shelter.

“Just realize Red Cross is a great organization and their goal is to help people,” Halliburton said. “This country would be better off if people would do what the Red Cross does.”

They are always in need of more volunteers. To find out how you can help, call 731-427-5543.