SAN ANTONIO - – They’re ready at a moment’s notice; that’s the goal of the local Red Cross in how they train their volunteers.
With a storm headed for Florida and hurricane season about to hit its peak, volunteers are ready to be deployed any day.
KSAT got to sit in on training, watched volunteers check their supplies and went to the warehouse to see pallets loaded.
“The volunteers, they are brushing up on training and understand that if they need to clear their schedule to be able to be deployed, they’re ready to go,” said Dr. Jeremy Roberts.
Roberts is the board chairman for the Greater San Antonio and South Texas chapter of the Red Cross.
He said hurricane training is essentially a year-round process, and it won’t be long until preparation becomes a reality.
“We’re constantly watching the weather,” Roberts said. “The American Red Cross does have our own weather person. He’s able to look at upcoming possible storms, so we make sure that we’re ready just in case.”
“The way the plans are laid out, it’s all in place,” said Yulane McNight, who has been a local Red Cross volunteer for over a year now. “All we have to do is get there.”
McKnight has deployed a couple of times to other disasters but has never covered a hurricane.
This week, she was training and preparing the Red Cross truck used for feeding disaster survivors.
“We already have the food packaged and ready to go. We have chips, we have water, we have coffee. Those things that we can handle and give out immediately. We’re ready to go,” she said, sitting in the truck.
As soon as a hurricane hits, the Red Cross has supplies in the warehouse on pallets that can be loaded onto trucks that can hit the road within minutes.
“We have a set time that the storm is 196 hours out, (and then) we start executing our plan,” Skip Cordes, the Alamo Territory Disaster Program Manager, said. “We start making calls to volunteers and getting them committed to deploy.”
Cordes became a Red Cross employee after decades as a volunteer.
He has 18 Red Cross deployments under his belt, so he knows logistics and coordination inside and out.
While he said most volunteers will deploy to hurricane scenes, some stay in San Antonio for sheltering.
“Hurricanes hit the coast, and all roads on the coast lead to San Antonio,” Cordes said. “So those people come up here, and we shelter them here, and we take care of them and get them on to their next steps.”
In May, Cordes started meeting with county emergency managers to get local shelter commitments.
“San Antonio is committed to sheltering 2,500 people,” Cordes said. “I just had a meeting with Comal County. They’re up to 2,000 people they can house.”
Now, all eyes are on the radar.
Once the call comes in, the volunteers are ready to drop everything and get to work.
The Red Cross always needs new volunteers. If you’re interested, head to the website and fill out a form.
If you can’t donate your time and want to donate money, you can choose specific disasters to fund. For example, you can support victims of a local fire, or you can send funds to Maui or the next federal disaster.
Here’s how you can donate to the Red Cross:
- Online at the Red Cross website
- Calling 1(800) HELP NOW or 1(800) 435-7669
- Texting 90999 to make an automatic $10 donation
For information on volunteering, Head to the Red Cross website or call (210) 224-5151