MERRILLVILLE | A Merrillville man is among the first Northwest Indiana disaster services volunteers heading to southern California Wednesday to assist with relief efforts.

Long-time Red Cross volunteer Jesse Jones, who boarded a California-bound plane Wednesday and was unavailable for comment, specializes in emergency response, Merrillville Red Cross officials said.

More than a half million people have been evacuated following a dozen wildfires in California that have burned more than 700 homes and nearly 250,000 acres of land. (Watch a video)

Jones' trip is part of a nationwide mobilization of the American Red Cross, said Gordon Johnson, executive director of the American Red Cross of Northwest Indiana.

"Jesse will be assigned where he is most needed," Johnson said. "His specialty is in logistics -- meaning people, supplies, vehicles, etc. Although that's his specialty, we cross train all of our volunteers."

Jones also served as a disaster services volunteer during the Red Cross' response to Hurricane Katrina, and he worked in Northwest Indiana in 2006 and again this year when the region was crippled by flood and hail damage.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross reported it has opened more than two dozen shelters in California and sent 40 truckloads of supplies, 75 mobile feeding vehicles, disaster cleaning kits and other cleaning supplies including rakes, shovels and buckets to the California effort.

The Red Cross also has sent about 2,000 people to help supplement the 1,500 local volunteers already in California.

Johnson said the situation changes daily.

"Everyone is praying for the winds to die down so that firefighters have an opportunity to stop these fires," he said.