CROSS LANES, W.Va. — West Virginians who have been hard hit by disaster will soon have more volunteer resources at their disposal. The American Red Cross and Volunteer West Virginia joined together Monday to welcome the first members of the West Virginia Disaster Corps into their ranks.
The group is a small Army of volunteers who are full time members of the national service organization AmeriCorps.
“We have about 75,” said Stephanie Yu, Executive Director of Volunteer West Virginia. “There’s about 180 year-round AmeriCorps members so a little less than half signed up for this. This is an option for them.”
Yu said they got the idea from previous disasters in West Virginia, both large and small. Many times when a widespread disaster strikes or even more so when the disaster is not so widespread, there is a struggle to find volunteers available to aid in the response. The West Virginia Disaster Corps will pick up the slack with a group trained in what needs to be done in the aftermath.
“There’s some federal options for federal disasters, but for state and local disasters there’s really not enough volunteers,” she said. “By using our AmeriCorps members, we can deploy them as needed to respond to different disasters.”
Yu said the disasters might be a widespread flood where there will be substantial need for physical labor. The disaster might be the landslide at Yeager Airport in Charleston where several members recently helped out. She said it might be as small as a house fire the family is in need of assistance on a temporary basis but may not qualify for other help. The Disaster Corps members will be their link in many cases to get in touch with the proper aid organizations.
“Responding to disasters, doing casework, digging mud out of houses, they do all of it,” she said.
Monday marked the launching of the workforce. Those taking part are trained in most basic disaster relief skills such as damage assessment and case work to go along with their physical recovery skills.