Sure, talk to the American Red Cross Society, which is the only nonprofit with a Congressional mandate to provide services during disasters. During Katrina, the

Sure, talk to the American Red Cross Society, which is the only nonprofit with a Congressional mandate to provide services during disasters. During Katrina, their Volunteer to Paid Employee ratio was about 64 to 1. It literally is an organization that exists to train volunteers for providing appropriate response during disasters. Is it bureaucratic and bloated? Sure, but its entire job is to get trained people in during these situations. Likewise, the Southern Baptist Convention provides most of the mobile kitchen that the ARCS uses (though they have no mandate to do so). There are official channels for getting volunteers trained up for these situations. The untrained folks have a tendency to make things worse, which is why the authorities usually don't want them there.