It's not well known, but FEMA hires temporary federal employees to do the same kind of disaster work as the Red Cross has been doing for years; disaster assessment and casework. I am not sure of how to get into these jobs, as FEMA never told me how I got onto their lists; I suspect it was CERT training.

If you are interesting in being on the list for responding to incidents like Katrina this is information on how to get involved.

Does anyone here have any experience with the Citizen Corps. Having watched two disasters like this in the US in recent memory its hard to sit on the sidelines and let other people deal with it...

Boing Boing: Federal temporary jobs in disaster recovery, a HOWTO