Americans are responding to Hurricane Katrina with a massive outpouring
of giving, at times overwhelming call centers and computer servers set
up by charities to field donations.
MICHAEL CONROY/AP
Jennifer Lamkin collects a donation to the Red Cross for hurricane
relief from Clarence Dix on Thursday in downtown Indianapolis.
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Total donations passed the $200 million mark by Friday, four days after
the storm slammed into the Gulf Coast. The bulk of those funds were
collected by The American Red Cross, which said it has raised $196.9
million from individuals and corporations.
But with needs still impossible to estimate and likely to stretch on for
months, relief groups say they don't know how much will be enough. And
they caution that, for all the desperation to help the victims, there
are numerous complications to doing so.
The scope of the devastation is so wide, the groups say, it takes time
to zero in on precisely where help is needed, and the challenge of
getting it there safely and securely changes almost hourly. For example,
government officials set up roadblocks and restricted relief agencies
from distributing aid in New Orleans, the agencies said.
Donations to the Red Cross so far fall short of the $550 million the
agency raised after last December's tsunami, or the $1 billion in total
donations it took in after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But the
volume of calls - about 100,000 a day this week - has vastly outpaced
the response after previous disasters, suggesting the donation total
could rise substantially.
"It's greater than any response we've had in memory," Ryland Dodge, a
spokesman for the Red Cross said.
Internet portal Yahoo.com, which is
handling overflow donation traffic from the Red Cross' own site, said it
already accepted $32 million in donations, topping the $30 million it
took in after September 11, a figure that took two weeks to reach.
In a tally including the Red Cross figure, The Chronicle of
Philanthropy said Friday that total aid for Katrina has reached $219
million. By way of comparison, the publication noted that Americans
donated $239 million in the 10 days following the terrorist attacks and
$30 million in the three days following the tsunami.
"After you see the pictures on the television I think that just
motivated so many people to give," said Stacy Palmer, the publication's
editor. "They just saw they had a responsibility to do something."
The wave of giving is also reaching lesser-known relief groups.
America's Second Harvest, a Chicago-based network of food banks
nationwide, called the response "overwhelming."
"We are absolutely getting more money than in previous hurricanes," said
Maura Daly, a spokeswoman for the group, which has raised $1.5 million
since Sunday.
The surge in giving comes despite cautiousness on the part of some large
corporations, usually among the most generous givers after natural
disasters.
While a number of big companies have made generous gifts, there have
been relatively few to match the donations of $10 million or more that
followed both the terrorist attacks and the tsunami, said Curt Weeden,
president of the Association of Corporate Contributions Professionals, a
trade group.
More large corporate gifts will come, but that may take time, Weeden
predicted. "With the companies we're talking to there's definitely a
wait-and-see attitude to the longer-term requirements that are going to
have to go into rebuilding," he said.
Meanwhile, as relief groups gather donations, they are working to put it
to use.
By Friday, the Red Cross had opened more than 280 emergency shelters in
schools, churches and community centers in nine states, and estimated it
was housing about 94,000 people. A running total of its spending so far
was not available.
Second Harvest had shipped 1.1 million pounds of food - the equivalent
of 859,000 meals - to seven states hit by the hurricane.
Still another group, MAP International, said it had dispatched a truck
full of medical supplies and other goods Wednesday from its Brunswick,
Ga. offices and was readying another shipment. The goods were headed for
a staging site in northern Florida, for eventual movement into the
storm-stricken area.
But aid groups said their efforts were limited in important ways.
"We are not in New Orleans," the Red Cross' Dodge said. The federal
Department of "Homeland Security has basically told us they don't want
us, our Red Cross folks, in New Orleans because our presence would keep
people from evacuating."
A spokesman for the federal agency said Friday that there is not an
absolute policy barring relief groups from the entire city, but that its
own efforts were taking precedence there.
"There may well be situations where it merits the Red Cross holding back
while our personnel go in first," said the spokesman, Russ Knocke. "But
our priority is meeting the immediate life-saving and life-sustaining
needs of those who've gone through a nightmare."
Other groups also reported that they were not being allowed into the
city. MAP International said it was working to send medical supplies to
a New Orleans hospital, but that the shipment was being held up by a
difficulty in getting the credentials needed for drivers to get through
roadblocks set up by the National Guard.
Second Harvest said it had secured a warehouse between New Orleans and
Baton Rogue, because its workers can't get to their facility in New
Orleans. But setting up operations was being complicated by shifting
demands. "At this point we don't know how many people are in need and
where they are. Evacuees arrive at different places everyday," Daly said.
The unique challenges posed by Katrina are starting to draw U.S.-based
relief groups that normally only work in crises overseas.
InterAction, an alliance of 160 such groups, said Friday that many of
its members were heading for the area to offer their expertise in the
refugee services they usually provide in developing countries.
AP Business Writers Theresa Agovino in New York and Michael Liedtke
in San Francisco contributed to this story.
