Salvation Army team prepares for hurricane season with disaster training

TAMPA, Fla. - Zach Harris is a veteran who served in the U.S. Army, but now, he works for the Salvation Army. It's a different mission. 

"Being around people and actually helping them out is very touching and very fulfilling," said Harris. 

He helps lead a disaster simulation training drill at the organization's division headquarters in Lutz. The Salvation Army has new equipment and leaders want to make sure personnel know how to use it. 

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"We don’t want to get caught up in how all this equipment works in the middle of a storm and trying to serve other people," said Kevin Smith, the national emergency services director for the Salvation Army. 

The organization responded to its first hurricane in 1900 when a storm devastated Galveston, Texas. Thousands of people were killed and many more were left homeless.  

Since then, the Salvation Army has continuously updated its methods and equipment. At this drill, personnel practice setting up trailers that contain beds, showers and toilet facilities that they take with them to the site of disasters so that they don't have to use hotels that are needed for evacuees and residents displaced from their homes. 

Smith said their hard work pays off when they pull into a devastated neighborhood. 

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"And when you see that joy on people’s faces, saying someone is here that cares for me, when you witness that first hand, you want to be a part of that," said Smith.

The organizaton's main disaster relief hubs are located in Tampa and in the Dallas, Texas area. Hundreds of personnel from both hubs were deployed in Florida following Hurricane Ian last September.