Lincoln husband, wife going to help storm victims

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

Tuesday night, nearly 50,000 people slept in American Red Cross shelters set up in 11 states near the Gulf Coast.

Ken and Mary Alice Jones, a Lincoln husband-and-wife team of Red Cross volunteers, will go to Baton Rouge, La., today to join more than 4,000 volunteers already in the area helping those affected by Hurricane Gustav.

The Joneses, who recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, have volunteered before on national disasters, though this will be their first hurricane disaster operation.

Before Gustav, the Joneses helped residents affected by flooding and tornadoes, including those in Coffeyville, Kan., and Rochester, Minn., in 2007. During Hurricane Katrina, they staffed a Red Cross call center in Omaha, helping Gulf Coast residents find assistance or pointing them to the nearest Red Cross shelter. They then returned to Lincoln to help train a new crop of volunteers.

Ken Jones said working as Red Cross volunteers is just in their nature.

“We care about people and so we want to help when there’s a disaster,” he said. “We want to go assist the residents of Louisiana who just suffered loss and have been dislocated from their homes.”

He and his wife also are active locally as members of the Disaster Action Team of the Cornhusker Regional Chapter in Lincoln. They also train new volunteers in sheltering, mass care and more.