Volunteers and Non-Profits team up to train for natural disasters

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – If you’ve lived in Mississippi very long, you know that natural disasters can strike in any season.

And when they do, volunteers are essential to everything from clean-up to registering people for emergency aid to rebuilding.

Today, the United Way of Lowndes and Noxubee Counties and the Golden Triangle Regional Hub for Volunteers and Non-Profits teamed up with Emergency Management Directors from Lowndes and Noxubee Counties to provide training for those volunteers.

Wednesday’s workshop focused on setting up a volunteer response center in the wake of a disaster.

“We are always trying to recruit volunteers. We always need new volunteers. We need on-call volunteers at all times that can respond to a disaster two hours from now who can help us,” said Tawuanda Walker-Turner, Director of Golden Triangle Hub.

“Volunteers are very important to be prepared. When you have a disaster in your community, immediately after the disaster, you don’t have government agencies like FEMA, so you need volunteers that are ready trained and prepared to help our community,” said Cindy Lawrence, EMS Director of Lowndes County.

If you would like to volunteer, you can go to the volunteer link at the United Way website and register.