Red Cross recruits shelter volunteers ahead of active hurricane season

If a hurricane cuts access roads on Hawaii Island, the Red Cross wants trained neighbors ready to open and staff shelters before outside help can get in. That urgency is driving a free Shelter Hero training push across the Hawaiian Islands as the 2026 central Pacific hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30, with NOAA forecasting a 70% chance of an above-normal season.

The training is designed to prepare community members to help run emergency shelters when storms damage roads or force evacuations. Shelter volunteers can handle registration, feeding, dormitory management and keeping a safe, comfortable space for evacuees. The Red Cross says shelters provide cots, food and water, and residents should bring bedding, essential items and medications when they leave home.

For Big Island households, the concern is not abstract. Hawaii Island’s size, distance between communities and vulnerable road network can slow disaster logistics, especially if heavy rain, flooding or wind damage blocks routes in East Hawaii, West Hawaii or the island’s more remote areas. NOAA’s Central Pacific outlook calls for 5 to 13 tropical cyclones in the basin, which stretches from 140°W longitude to the International Date Line, and the agency says El Niño can bring warming ocean temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific along with weaker trade winds that alter weather patterns.

The Red Cross has already leaned on local shelter workers in recent storms. During the March 2026 Kona low response, it opened and staffed 11 shelters across Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lānai and the Big Island, helping more than 500 people and serving more than 1,100 meals. The organization has said nearly half of its disaster response workforce during the Kona low storm series came from the local community, underscoring how quickly island residents can become the backbone of emergency operations.

Molly Schmidt, who has led the American Red Cross Pacific Islands Region since August 2025, said the goal is to have trained shelter volunteers in communities throughout the islands so that, if access roads are cut off, people nearby already know what to do. The region serves Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, but the message for Big Island residents is immediate: sign up for Shelter Hero training, review a household evacuation plan and identify which neighbors may need help first when the next storm bears down.