Red Cross Training Middle Tennesseans To Help In Texas

The Red Cross in Middle Tennessee is putting on courses to prepare volunteers who want to head to the Texas coast. Staffing shelters is the priority at the moment.

There’s a rather involved intake process at the growing number of shelters from Hurricane Harvey. Those who’ve fled their homes or been plucked from the floodwaters have to do a little paperwork when they arrive.

“They don’t just walk in and lay down,” says Bobby Young of the Red Cross’s Nashville office. “We have to get all their information and log them in and log them out when they come in and out of the shelter, what their needs are, if they have pets.”

Volunteers needed! Upcoming trainings at Nashville Area Red Cross: Tuesday, August 29 and Wednesday, August 30.
#HurricaneHarvey
pic.twitter.com/5kls9hB1sq— Nashville Red Cross (@NashRedCross)
August 28, 2017

The Red Cross is putting on half-day classes in Nashville this week that can accept 30 to 40 people. Volunteers could be deployed within days. Young says they have to make a minimum of a two-week commitment.

So far, a team of seven has left Nashville for Texas. A dozen others are on standby to depart Wednesday. But Young says the state’s Red Cross doesn’t want to over extend itself in case the remnants of Harvey cause problems in Tennessee.