Anna Beth Payne flew to Mississippi Sept. 18. She lived with about 500 Red Cross workers for two weeks in a warehouse on a naval base in Gulf Port.

Payne, associate director of the Counseling and Student Development Center, was one of many volunteers who took part in the relief efforts of Hurricane Katrina.

“The Red Cross needs a lot of volunteers whenever there’s a disaster, and it has a partnership with mental health professionals,” Payne said.

According to the Red Cross, 1,200 licensed mental health experts have been recruited from professional organizations and deployed to Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Texas.

Most of Payne’s time was spent with community outreach. Payne and others would load trucks up with “basic stuff people didn’t have,” she said, such as cleaning supplies, food, Gatorade, cold water, shovels, rakes and bleach. She would then be assigned to areas affected by the hurricane and go door to door handing out the supplies.

“I would give them things that they could use,” Payne said. “While I’m doing that, I would try to talk to them about just how they were doing [and] what they needed and try to provide a little emotional first aid.”

While traveling through the area surrounding Gulf Port, Payne saw the devastation caused by the hurricane. She also had the chance to talk with many of the people who lost so much in the disaster.

“One of the most emotional moments for me was when I was talking to a woman in a town that practically did not exist anymore,” Payne said.

The woman was asking some questions about Red Cross procedures and then during a longer conversation, pointed across the street to an empty field and said, “‘That’s where my house was. That was my house. I lived there 45 years,’” Payne said.

Payne emphasized the need for continued aid.

“It’s so easy for us to have this immediate rush of ‘we want to help right now,’ and then time passes, things fade, another thing comes up in the news and we forget,” Payne said. “It’s important not to forget.”

In order to partake in the relief effort, Payne used part of her own vacation time. While she was gone other staff members adjusted schedules and work loads in order to make her trip possible.

“The sense I got from the staff was, ‘we would all like to be able to go and help but can’t,’ so they all helped me help others by adjusting their schedules,” Payne said. “I really appreciate it because I couldn’t have [helped] without that kind of support from my colleagues.”

Kathy Hotelling, director of the Counseling and Student Development Center, said she admired Payne’s actions.

“I think this is the sort of thing we need to lend our expertise to. I think it’s a tribute to our profession, our office and to Student Affairs,” she said.

The Counseling and Student Development Center will hold a support group for hurricane evacuees and those with families affected by the hurricanes at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Campus Life Building, Room 200.