Red Cross Disaster Drill
By: Liz Gonzales
Updated: February 27, 2013
Texas is notorious for wild and unpredictable weather. From wildfires to thunderstorms to tornadoes, the state has seen it all.
The Red Cross is in charge of providing aid to anyone that falls victim to natural disasters. This weekend, for the first time ever over 40 Red Cross branches in the states of Texas and Oklahoma are rallying together to test their ability to respond to a simulated devastating tornado.
It's estimated that over 700 disaster assessment volunteers will participate in the event. Their purpose is to determine the types of residential damage cause by the tornado outbreak.
Selected neighborhoods will have visual images of homes that have been damaged and it will then be up to the volunteer to evaluate the damage and report back to the Red Cross.
This step is crucial in engineering the proper response.
"Otherwise we wouldn't even know how to inform national headquarters we even had a disaster. And the numbers that we give them, they put a formula to it. And that way they have an idea of how much damage is involved," says volunteer Johnny Gooch.
Volunteers will gather here at the Red Cross in Brownwood this Saturday beginning at 8:30 in the morning.
