BOSTON (AP) – For 17-year-old Lauren Wells, the devastation and heartache of Hurricane Katrina hit home when she saw on television a dehydrated 3-year-old boy crumpled up in the arms of his mother. The woman was wading through waist-deep water calling out desperately for help.

“I have a 4-year-old nephew,” Wells said. “I just thought, if that was me, I’d want someone to come and help.”

So on Saturday, Wells joined more than 50 people at the Red Cross in Boston to train for possible deployment to areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.

Red Cross chapters nationwide are recruiting and training thousands of volunteers to assist at shelters in nine hurricane-affected states and help get food and water to victims. The organization plans to mobilize 9,000 volunteers for minimum two-week deployments.

Hugh Drummond, a spokesman at the Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay, said 500 volunteers have already been deployed from New England.

“We have tons of people who want to help,” Drummond said. “There’s a tremendous outpouring.”

Liz Flynn, 25, said she felt obligated to join the effort after seeing her former college town submerged.

The Brookline native graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans three years ago and said she keeps a special place in her heart for her one-time home and its residents.

“It’s scary and shocking to watch what’s going on down there,” Flynn said. “I feel like I have to go, though. That was my adopted home and I was going to possibly move back there. I love the city.”

During the Saturday session, volunteers learned everything from basic first aid to what conditions to expect.

Drummond said volunteers would likely get little sleep and have to deal with extreme heat and humidity and poor communications.

Edward E. Stuart, 55, of Boston, said the uncomfortable conditions don’t deter him from wanting to help.

“To look at New Orleans – a party town with great jazz and food and energetic people – and see what it has turned into – a place of mourning and death – it just moves you,” said Stuart, a probation officer.

Volunteers must be ready to deploy within 24 hours notice. When they’re called, they will be asked to bring a sleeping bag and other basic essentials.

Erin Sarris, director of Disaster Response at the Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay, said the devastation from the hurricane has made the situation for relief workers very tough.

“There’s food and water shortages even for workers,” she told potential volunteers. She added that part of Saturday’s training day was deciding whether they could handle going.

“This is worse than anything I’ve seen,” she told them. “It’s OK if it’s not for you.”