NATCHEZ &045; The Red Cross announced Thursday it will begin giving one-time assistance checks to displaced disaster victims.

Checks will be distributed beginning at 9 a.m. Monday at the Natchez Convention Center.

Lori Rosen of the Red Cross anticipates up to 10,000 people in the Miss-Lou area qualify and asked that those who can wait until later in the week do so to avoid lines.

&uot;We are not going to run out of checks; we are not going to run out of money,&uot; she said.

&uot;We’ll be there the whole week and if we haven’t seen everybody, we’ll come back next week.&uot;

The checks may be cashed at banks and participating area businesses.

This is a one-time disbursement is meant to help evacuees take care of incidental expenses.

Only people evacuated from Louisiana and Mississippi coastal disaster areas qualify. Adams and the surrounding counties and parishes do not qualify as disaster areas.

People do not need to bring every member of their family to prove its size.

A photo ID will be required to prove residence.

The Red Cross will register everyone who collects a check, greatly aiding its attempts to get an accurate census of the evacuee population in the Miss-Lou.