By Monique Roth
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — In preparation for the upcoming hurricane season, the Southeast Louisiana Red Cross, in coordination with the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security, hosted a free disaster shelter training for River Parishes government employees.

The training, which took place in March, was conducted at the St. John Community Center in LaPlace and involved instruction on shelter and feeding fundamentals, as well as a shelter fundamentals exercise.

St. John the Baptist Parish Public Safety and Health and Human Services employees and representatives from St. James Parish attended the training.

“The shelter training provided us the instruction and materials we needed to deliver efficient sheltering and related services to the community during and after a disaster,” said Rhonda Lemons, health and human services director and parish shelter lead during an emergency. She said the information offered at the six-hour training was very valuable and that she felt as though St. John Parish was better prepared to manage shelter operations should the need arise.

Kim Adams, disaster specialist for the SELA Red Cross and course instructor, said the training is geared toward community needs.

“It’s an opportunity for government leaders to converse about past experiences with Red Cross leaders in an effort to be better in the future,” said Adams.