After spending 36 hours awake during Hurricane Ivan, Brett Howard said he thought it might be time to start recruiting more people to work at the Emergency Management Agency.

“One of the lessons we learned from Ivan,” he said. “We just didn’t have enough help.”

Now, to provide better emergency services to Dallas County residents, EMA Director Howard said he’s recruiting volunteers.

Each volunteer will be trained to pitch in whenever and emergency is declared, Howard said.

The system will function a lot like volunteer fire departments, Howard said, with volunteers reporting to EMA Headquarters whenever needed.

Howard said he’s looking for reliable people that can help out.

“Somebody that has the ability to come in on nights and weekends,” he said, “sometimes at a moments notice, somebody that wants to help the community.”

Also, he said it would help if the

Howard said there is no specific start date on the program and he’ll be tailoring the training to accommodate the schedules of volunteers.

Volunteers will be trained in procedures for answering the phones, responding to emergency situations and dispatching help where it’s needed. Ultimately, Howard said he wants to serve more people, better.

With volunteers, Howard said he can keep fresh people in the center whenever emergency situations, like Ivan, occur.

“With a good volunteer program we would (be) able to,” Howard said.

For more information on volunteering at the EMA, call Howard at the office at 877-2515.