The nation’s first 231 FEMA Corps volunteers were inducted in Vicksburg Thursday for their 10 months of service in disaster areas.

The volunteers will travel to Alabama today for additional training before being deployed to disaster zones along the Gulf Coast as volunteers for AmeriCorps NCCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Corporation for National and Community Service CEO Wendy Spencer.

“FEMA Corps is a groundbreaking project that merges the expertise of the two programs,” Spencer said.

The federal government declared a record 99 disasters in 2011, and FEMA Deputy Administrator Richard Serino developed FEMA Corps following the E-F5 tornado that devastated Joplin, Mo., May 22, 2011.

“Everywhere I went with these disasters, I saw AmeriCorps there,” Serino said.

FEMA Corps volunteer Mariah Hutchinson of Joplin said she was inspired to join the group after seeing AmeriCorps volunteers in her hometown.

“I knew this is what I was destined to do,” she said.

AmeriCorps NCCC is a full-time, team-based residential, national service program for men and women ages 18 to 24 who are organized into teams of 10 to 12 members. They travel throughout regions of the United States, serving communities on six- to eight-week projects related to disaster preparation, response, recovery and infrastructure improvement. FEMA Corps is similarly designed, but members will be deployed exclusively for disaster response.

“The work that you are going to do is absolutely critical, absolutely essential to help the survivors,” Serino told FEMA Corps inductees.

The second group of FEMA Corps volunteers will be inducted in Vinton, Iowa, Sept. 28, and the organization is expected to grow to 1,600 members nationwide, Spencer said.

The Southern region of AmeriCorps NCC, based in Vicksburg, began transitioning to a summer-based program several months ago and currently has a group of 160 members in the field who will graduate in December. Those 160 are in addition to the 231 who were inducted Thursday.