All the donations in the world can’t help unless they get to the people who most need them.

With that in mind, a representative of the American Red Cross national office is setting up the Adams County chapter’s North Union Street office as a central command center for offering help to local evacuees.

More than 1,000 people from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are being housed in several shelters in Natchez.

National staffers’ job will be to keep in touch with the shelters and field calls from those who call to offer help to make sure supplies and volunteers are put where they’re most needed.

With evacuees expected to stay in the area several months or more in some cases, &uot;this is a race, not a sprint &045; we’re in it for the long haul,&uot; said Lori Rosen of the Red Cross national office.

Rosen made her comments Monday morning at an informal meeting of Red Cross staff, local officials and others helping coordinate help for the shelters.

On the wall behind Rosen was a dry-erase board where volunteers manning the office’s phones are writing the supplies and staff each shelter needs as well as the available capacity and main contacts for each location.

With that knowledge, Red Cross workers can help make sure the help people offer when they call the office &045; (601) 442-3656 &045; gets to the shelter that most needs it.

&uot;We’re going to start right now assessing what our needs are,&uot; Rosen said. &uot;We need to make sure we’re utilizing all we’ve got.&uot;

The office will also serve as a central place to call for shelter information. &uot;We ask that people not call the shelters directly to let them do their jobs,&uot; Rosen said.

In addition, she said, that prevents well-intentioned shelter workers from giving out incorrect and conflicting information.

Rosen said she is also working to get more Red Cross workers from outside the area to Natchez to help relieve volunteers who have been working for days at the shelters and may need to fix storm damage at their own homes.

But &uot;your local people are doing a fabulous job,&uot; Rosen said. &uot;(Evacuees) Š are saying they’ve been treated to well they want to move here permanently.&uot;

Three volunteers from the Red Cross arrived Saturday night to assist with work at the two Concordia Parish Red Cross shelters.

Chris Grieve, a Red Cross veteran, is now running the shelter at the Concordia Parish Community Center. Grieve is from Iowa. Two other volunteers working in the parish are form Washington and Calfornia.

&uot;We’re here running the shelter with an enormous amount of community support,&uot; Grieve said. &uot;The community is stepping up and helping immensely, bringing in resources to help our shelter residents.&uot;

Grieve said running the shelter has been hard work but has gone smoothly thus far.

&uot;Things are going well right now,&uot; Grieve said. &uot;The Red Cross will be here as long as we’re needed.&uot;

Christian Schmidt contributed to this story.