NATCHEZ &045; In every disaster &045; Hurricane Katrina included &045; there are lessons to be learned about how to prepare for the next time one strikes.

With that in mind, city department heads will now meet each Monday at City Hall to work on an updated plan for how the city will respond to future disasters.

The new plan will include everything from evacuation routes to how to get public services to thousands of people who could be in the area for several months to how to get evacuees the supplies they need.

&uot;That’s one of the things that prompted these meetings, is that we’ve got to have a permanent distribution plan&uot; for food, toiletries, clothes and other necessities brought to local nonprofits and churches, Mayor Phillip West said.

Churches, in particular, need to clear their facilities of such items but need a central site at which to store them, West said.

Details of the city’s current disaster preparedness plan weren’t available as of press time, but West said &uot;it’s my understanding that the plan that’s in place encompasses more of a short-term approach&uot; to dealing with such things as an influx of evacuees. &uot;We need a longer-term approach.&uot;

Nearly all the city’s department heads, from police and fire to public works and planning, will take part in the disaster preparedness meetings. Since the city can’t afford to hire someone to coordinate such efforts full time, West said, &uot;everyone will have to pitch in.&uot;

But local governments aren’t the only ones evaluating what they can do to better prepare for the next storm.

&uot;This taught us to be prepared for anything, because nobody expected (Katrina’s effects) to be this big,&uot; said Janet Trahern, assistant director of the Salvation Army in Natchez.

For her part, Trahern will work to recruit as many volunteers as possible, especially those who can work during weekday business hours when most are at full-time jobs.

That said, the nonprofit’s existing volunteers, about eight die-hards in all, have bent over backwards to help, sorting food and clothes for those in need. &uot;Then when they come in, they bring a friend with them,&uot; Trahern said. &uot;We’ve gotten a lot of new people that way. And let’s face it &045; every little bit helps.&uot;

The American Red Cross, which has played and continues to play a key role in housing and caring for people evacuating from hurricanes, said it was pleased with the way things have run, but that there’s always room for improvement.

&uot;Getting volunteers trained in advance of an incident is a priority for us,&uot; Adams County Chapter Executive Director John Goodrich said.

Chapter executives also pointed to the communication problems caused when the power goes out. Disaster coordinator Don Winters said the shelter at Steckler Multipurpose Center had a ham radio in case of a blackout, but that a couple of satellite phones would help keep the shelters in touch.

On the national level, the Red Cross is working to correct problems it incurred with its toll-free hotlines in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

When the phone service is affected, the local provider has a priority list it uses to make sure emergency calls get through. Toll-free numbers are low on that list.

The Red Cross and FEMA got the problem corrected and their numbers are now higher on the priority list for next time.

Communication was the one area Adams County Sheriff Ronny Brown wanted to work on as well.

The sheriff’s department is the only one in the county not connected to the E911 system, something Brown wants to change.

&uot;We’re going to fix it to where, if their system goes down, we can hook them up to our stuffŠ and if ours goes down, we’ll have theirs as a backup,&uot; Brown said.

He said money from the Department of Homeland Security would fund the upgrade.

While electronic communication between departments is on the mind of the sheriff, verbal communication between the city and county governments is something Adams County Board of Supervisors and the President Darryl Grennell would like to see improved.

Two instances during Hurricane Katrina, a board-issued curfew and a city-ordered gasoline ordinance, caused the only confusion in an otherwise smooth operation. Grennell said everyone has learned a lot from the experience.

&uot;We’ve got to improve communications,&uot; he said. &uot;We’ve got to do it collectively for the people in the community, inside and outside the city limits.&uot;

The coordinator of all emergency and post-emergency operations is the Civil Defense Department. Director George Souderes said there is a county-wide master plan in case of emergency and that each department has clearly delineated duties to perform. The performance of the county would be evaluated at an after-action meeting.

Souderes, who is in the midst of coordinating the county’s temporary housing solution, hasn’t set a date for an after-action meeting.

&uot;That hasn’t crossed our thought process right now,&uot; he said. &uot;We’re in the middle of this one.&uot;