As Its Coffers Swell, Red Cross Is Criticized on Gulf Coast Response

In New Orleans and the coastal flood plains of Mississippi, many people are complaining that the American Red Cross was missing in their worst hours of need and are worried that its billowing relief fund may bypass them entirely.

The organization did not open shelters in flood-prone areas and was therefore unable to provide food and other necessities to people closest to the coast ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

"The Red Cross has been my biggest disappointment," said Tim Kellar, the administrator of Hancock County, Miss. "I held it in such high esteem until we were in the time of need. It was nonexistent."

Even some volunteers are disgusted. "I will never, ever wear the Red Cross vest again," said Betty Brunner, who started volunteering in 1969 when Hurricane Camille destroyed her house but quit last week over the organization's response in Hancock County.

Two days after Hurricane Katrina struck, the Red Cross had only one shelter in the county, and it was far from some of the most populated coastal towns. It had no shelter in New Orleans.

...

In some of the nation's biggest disasters, the Red Cross has raised more money than it has needed. As of June, the organization still had roughly $40 million of the more than $1 billion it collected for a fund it created after the Sept. 11 attacks.

It raised $55 million for the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco and spent only $12 million on direct disaster relief, angering local officials who wanted some money to build a homeless shelter.

It spent about a quarter of the money raised after the attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, and the Minnesota attorney general held public hearings to prod it to release $4 million retained after the Red River flood in 1997.

Stephanie Strom and Campbell Robertson, The New York Times, September 20, 2005

The above report pretty much falls into line with what I have heard about the Red Cross through the years. For instance on Friday, September 14, 2001 I had helped an acquaintance of mine collect some urgently needed essentials for the 9/11 search and rescue effort in which he was participating. Even though massive amounts of supplies were rumored to have been warehoused in Red Cross-run facilities in The Bronx three days after the attacks the people working the WTC rescue had yet to see a single pair of socks from those supplies. And one must note that when one works in a hazmat suit all the clothes in the immediate contact with one's body pretty much rot away within hours.

So even if for the time being we leave the more serious allegations leveled agaisnt the Red Cross aside it is quit eclear that the organization's efficiency and usefulness leaves quite a bit to be desired. Which to a large extent is the reason why I am personally far more likely to work with a small grassroots organization providing assistance to the victims than with the Red Cross which, needless to say, is not getting any of my money.

tags: redcross