The third-year MSU College of Law student parked his car six blocks away from his house because of the debris. His home held out through both Charley and Frances.

"I had to trudge through trees and boards snapped in half like twigs," Rascher said. "I was just open-jawed."

Rascher said he arrived at MSU for fall classes a week late because he couldn't drive his car out of Florida for several days.

"My mom's pretty much at the end of her rope with all these storms," Rascher said. "I don't even know what to do about Ivan."

But while Rascher is safely back on campus, local volunteers with both the American Red Cross and the county's Community Emergency Response Team are headed south. They'll help victims of the trio of devastating Florida hurricanes, such as those in Rascher's neighborhood.

Lansing resident and state employee Karin Carver trained with the Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, so she could help out in case of a local emergency. But she never expected her training would take her south to Florida.

Carver, who left Tuesday, and other Lansing-area team members are spending several weeks in Florida to help with the aftermath of hurricanes Frances and Charley. The group is bracing for Monday's predicted arrival of Hurricane Ivan.

"It's going to probably be a rude awakening," Carver said.

The two storms have collectively caused nearly $10 billion in damage and killed 48 people. Carver said the closest she had previously been to dangerous weather was a tornado last summer.

Ronda Oberlin, of the Lansing Office of Emergency Management, spent her Labor Day weekend sorting through the area's list of CERT members to help meet Florida's cry for 1,000 extra volunteers.

"We didn't expect to use CERT volunteers this way," she said.

Employees from several state departments, as well as ham radio operators and students in the Outward Bound outdoor adventure program have all gone through CERT training.

Carver flew to Georgia on Tuesday evening to receive further training before heading into the fray.

Oberlin said she expected another call for volunteers within the next few days, regardless of where Ivan hits.

"All of those groups sending people to help with relief are still sending people," she said. "There's just not enough."

The American Red Cross usually handles the bulk of volunteer efforts during natural disasters, but with Charley and Frances delivering a hurricane one-two punch, they needed extra help, Oberlin said.

Juanita Trujillo and her husband of Bannister, northeast of Lansing, recently returned home after spending three weeks in Orlando and Miami with the Red Cross.

"Everything's just pulled right out of the ground," said Trujillo, who helped residents of a destroyed trailer park. "They had nothing with them, just exactly what they were wearing."

Trujillo said the need for bilingual workers was so desperate that one man came in off the street to help translate for Haitians.

"When you get out there, it's long hours and hard work, but it's all worth it working with the people," Trujillo said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

To track hurricane activity, visit nhc.noaa.gov

To find out more about CERT, call (517) 203-5010