Money and an in-person presence are often two of the most essential parts for any one trying to volunteer to help during a disaster.

Sometimes though, making more creative options just cannot be done.

Throughout the country during the last two months, an idea sprung up that that oil spilling in the Gulf of Mexico could be contained off of the shore lines through boons made out of hair. Salons and pet grooms nationally began collecting human hair and pet fur to bundle up and send to the Gulf, only to find out that the materials ultimately sank because they absorbed too much water according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

According to Gary Gilham of the Prince William County chapter of the Red Cross, pure distance is one of the problems that makes trying to help out from out of state difficult for Northern Virginia disaster relief volunteers.

"That's a long way for us to go without an impending doom storm," said Gilham, who is coordinator for disaster relief and service to the armed forces.

The Red Cross's Emergency Communication Response Vehicle stationed in Manassas, labeled number 4703, has been down to the Gulf before when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Gilham said it had just come out of a manufacturing plant in Florida and its first assignment was to help out over there. Local crews from Prince William flew down to man the truck and eventually drove it back.

Five years later, the truck is one of more than 400 in the country that provide remote communication for the Red Cross at disaster sites, though it now tends to stay near states closest to Virginia.

"Even in the worse case scenario in the world... we would still be able to communicate with the Red Cross internally," said Gilham.

Currently, the truck is off in West Virginia to assist flooding victims. According to Gilham, Haymarket resident Roger Blinn just returned back from the site last week while others from the Prine William chapter, including Dan Rogers of Haymarket, Charles Mudd of Woodbridge, Cathy Lantz of Stafford County and Scott Fagan of Frederick County, Maryland, have all been stationed out in West Virginia at some point.

Blinn and Mudd were the first from the crew to go out to West Virginia back in April after the coal mine explosion that killed 29 people.

According to an official statement from the local Red Cross, they were "notified of activation at 5:40 p.m., reported to the Prince William Chapter at 7:15 p.m. and were on their way to the West (Virginia) site by 7:45 p.m. E-mail communications from the operators state that they arrived at their West Virginia destination in the early morning hours where they immediately set up satellite operations."

Gilham said that even in light of some other disasters -- the truck made a tour in Nashville this spring for assistance with flooding in Tennessee -- the need for national disaster relief provided by the local chapter has actually been statistically less in the last year than in before due to the lack of major hurricanes along the east coast.

However, that does not mean the local helpers are not prepared, with thousands of versions of civilian versions of meals ready to eat being stores and volunteers ready to be activated at a moment's notice.

"We always prepare within our region for the always looming threat of terrorism or a man-made disaster," said Gilham.