[wildernesse]

Red Cross shelters are often run by volunteers--they should all have little folders with instructions about what to do although without some supplies and leadership it won't be much help. I've had disaster training and shelter admin through the local Red Cross--it lasted one day, and while I am sure that some of the older people in my training session would have enough life (and military) experience to make that worthwhile, I am not sure that people my age or people who aren't used to being in charge of things would. Since you are closer to all of the damage, it may be that people got there before the shelter was fully set up--people at the Astrodome have had some time to get things settled. Once you're unprepared, it would be a lot harder to put that genie back in the bottle.