About 80 members of the St. Petersburg Suncoast Association of Realtors have volunteered to serve as damage assessors in the aftermath of a major storm in south Pinellas County. Half already have gone through the three-hour certification course. The 2,000-member association is hoping to sign up 200 real estate brokers for the job. The task is vital. The Red Cross uses the assessments, which are done in daylight hours immediately after a storm passes, to determine how many volunteers to send where.
Government also depends on the assessments to decide when to declare a disaster area.
The sooner the assessment is done, the sooner federal dollars are available for help. While the Red Cross has thousands of volunteers for other tasks, it is difficult to keep enough volunteers trained in damage assessment signed up. Executives of the local chapter of the American Red Cross are excited by the idea of recruiting real estate brokers for the job and hope it will spread beyond the St. Petersburg association. St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.