HATTIESBURG, Miss.--If you're interested in helping out in Hattiesburg with tornado recovery efforts, a volunteer center was set to open at noon Friday. The center is called Volunteer Hattiesburg. 

If you want to help with disaster relief, you can go to the Hattiesburg Train Depot (308 Newman Street). Volunteers will be registered and deployed to help at various sites managed by local organizations.

The center was made possible by collaboration between Volunteer Hattiesburg and R3SM,Inc., the USM Center for Community and Civic Engagement, Lamar County and Forrest County Emergency Operations, the United Way of South Mississippi Volunteer Center, Mississippi VOAD partners, Volunteer Mississippi, AmeriCorps programs and other city, community and faith-based organizations.

Volunteering
• If you would like to help with tornado relief efforts in Hattiesburg, register as a Volunteer Hattiesburg Response Center volunteer at VolunteerMississippi.net. Volunteer Mississippi publishes a daily Disaster Digest: subscribe athttp://disaster.volunteermississippi.org.

• Want to help with Hattiesburg area recovery, but don't want to do manual labor? Volunteer Hattiesburg will be training volunteers to assist in operating the Volunteer Response Center at the Hattiesburg Train Depot TOMORROW, Friday, February 15. Training begins at 10 a.m., and you can quickly make use of your new-found skills, as the VRC opens in earnest at noon!
Donations
• Items: At this time, our Mississippi VOAD partners are in the process of securing warehouse space for donated items. Once they have identified specific community needs, we will post them here. If you are a company or an organization with access to large volumes of items and would like to donate them to disaster relief efforts or other humanitarian efforts, please visit AidMatrix Mississippi athttp://www.aidmatrixnetwork.org/fema/States.aspx?ST=Mississippi.
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• Financial Donations: You may also donate funds to the Governor's Disaster Relief Fund (www.MississippiRelief.com), support Salvation Army Disaster response by texting STORM to 80888, and text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief.

If You Need Assistance

• Residents of storm-affected areas should register with 2-1-1 (alternate number: 866.472.8265). 2-1-1 will call when their needs can be met.
• Please check the National Shelter System (http://www.redcross.org/find-help/shelter) for information about current shelter operations.
• The Salvation Army has deployed feeding stations. Current locations may be found at http://disaster.salvationarmyusa.org.
• Anyone with damages should register with FEMA online at www.disasterassistance.gov or by phone at 1-800-621-FEMA(3362) TTY 800-462-7585. C-Spire Wireless customers may also dial #362 to access the FEMA disaster assistance registration line directly.