Volunteering in Emergencies

Does anyone know anything about how the volunteering work is being coordinated in the emergency relief effort after the flooding?

I saw this from the Gloucestershire City Echo:

NO MORE VOLUNTEERS PLEA FROM COUNCIL

Gloucester City Council have asked for no more calls from people volunteering support during the flooding crisis.

In a statement released this afternoon, Marcus Grodentz, spokesman for the authority, said: "Gloucester City Council has thanked all the people who have come forward to offer their services as volunteers to help with the distribution of bottled water.

The council is grateful for the response from the public and now has enough people for the time being. A further appeal will be put out next week if the situation changes."

Gloucester City Council has been giving updates including appealing for volunteering via its home page.

The British Red Cross have launched an appeal calling for donations but there doesn't seem to be any coordinated appeal for volunteers.

The South Yorkshire Community Foundation in conjunction with the County Durham Foundation is trying to raise £500,000 to help victims of last month's flooding. 

So has WRVS: "Severe flooding across the United Kingdom has seen our emergency services working at full stretch – the fire service, police, ambulance crews and WRVS". 

Is it that there's no need for more volunteers and that there's simply not enough adequate volunteering management infrastructure in place to coordinate volunteering on a large scale?

Volunteering England have blogged about this on Mark Restall's blog at the beginning of July

CSV released this press release last month about one initiative in Sheffield

WRVS have released several updates on their website about their work in Gloucester and Worcester

St John's Ambulance have released regular news updates

The RNLI's Rapid Response Unit (RRU) has rescued more than 120 people in central England since the early hours of Saturday morning.

The Salvation Army has been responding to severe flooding across large areas of England, since unprecedented heavy rainfall on Friday 20 July.

"SELFLESS volunteers at the Severn Area Rescue Service have been working gruelling 14 hour shifts to lend a helping hand to people caught in the Gloucestershire floods.

The SARA crew at Beachley Station, near Chepstow, have been working alongside the police, fire and ambulance services in Tewkesbury since the flash floods first struck on Friday afternoon."

The Star (South Yorkshire): "VOLUNTEERS are being asked to come forward to help clean up Sheffield's waterways which remain filled with debris after last month's floods.
A mass volunteer clean-up of the Five Weirs Walk is being planned for the last weekend in July to shift tons of material left behind by the heavy rainfall."

In Sheffield: "About 1,500 volunteers and council staff set off on a fact-finding mission this morning to survey damaged properties and find out how residents' needs can be met."

A helpline has been set up to offer advice and support to flood victims (Worcester News). Worcestershire County Council has urged residents to call 08456 031296 for help or advice about whether they should travel today."The hard work and commitment shown by staff and volunteers from all the agencies involved in this operation has been exemplary and a good example of good community spirit." 

A leading animal welfare charity was today appealing to the public for donations to help it cope with the cost of flood rescue efforts (Community Channel). The RSPCA said its officers were working alongside the emergency services and the Red Cross, and had begun helping people as well as animals to safety in what it described as a "national disaster".

My guess is that these are just a small fraction of the work that's been carried out by volunteers in the last weeks.