Write a 2-page essay that examines the capabilities of one of your community’s voluntary disaster organizations in terms of the kinds of services they might provide during a disaster, how capable they are of doing such things as home repair or running emergency shelters, and how much time volunteers might have to participate in disaster operations.
Note: While you do not know exactly what skills your friends and neighbors have, you can consider the range of skills and the sophistication of skills that might be required. Running a shelter, for example, often requires handling major and minor medical emergencies, providing childcare, providing elder care, resolving conflict, counseling victims, discouraging conduct that may cause problems (e.g., drinking, smoking, etc.), and securing personal possessions, as well as allocating space and supplies. If the shelter houses homeless, elderly, and other special populations, the task can be even more complicated. Exposure to colds, flu, and even more serious diseases is also a possibility.