Red Cross’ Huge Effort Not Without Critics

Amid the destruction and dislocation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the American Red Cross has undertaken a relief effort unlike any in its history. So far, the charity has spent $811 million on emergency cash aid and $110 million on food and shelter.

The results have been mixed.

Despite the ambition of the charity’s efforts and the money spent, evacuees in several states complained in interviews last week that Red Cross aid had been slow and unreliable. Other charity groups and relief workers contend that the agency is in over its head.

Guy Richardson, a New Orleans waiter who made it to Atlanta with his family, said he encountered chaos in trying to get cash assistance from the Red Cross. He waited in line for eight hours at a center, without success; the charity later pulled out of the center.

Others, including Liz Tadlock, have grumbled about their inability to get through on a toll-free phone line set up to help evacuees register for emergency cash assistance. The Belle Chasse teacher said she spent two days at a center dialing the Red Cross number.

Relief workers like Latosha Brown say the Red Cross has yet to reach many people in remote, impoverished areas, weeks after the Aug. 29 storm. Angered by what she calls the charity’s lack of outreach, Brown and others formed and funded their own organization -- Saving Ourselves -- in Mobile, Ala.

There have also been allegations of discrimination in some Red Cross shelters, and complaints that some volunteers have been insensitive to the needs of evacuees.

Several relief agency leaders argue that the Red Cross has become mired in a protracted recovery effort that it is not designed to handle. The charity traditionally provides short-term aid and is gone from the scene of a disaster within days.

Critics also say the charity’s fundraising success -- it has collected $1.3 billion, more than 75% of all Katrina-related donations -- is undercutting other agencies.

“The Red Cross is a brand name, and people automatically pick it for donations,” said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, which monitors how charities spend their money. “But there are a lot of local groups who could use assistance and reimbursement, and the Red Cross isn’t willing to do that.”

Marsha J. Evans, president and chief executive of the Red Cross, said in a phone interview that the agency had put “thousands of people in the field who understand these concerns and are trying to do the right thing.”

But she would not discuss whether the charity would share its donations. Nor would she comment on specific complaints. She said the organization had “no desire” to expand its mission beyond immediate relief into long-term community redevelopment, and that the Red Cross would advise the public when it no longer needed hurricane donations.

The charity had to improvise, given the scale of Katrina. Red Cross officials hurriedly came up with plans to deliver emergency debit cards to 689,000 families; they found ways to house 390,000 evacuees in hotels for months at a time. They mobilized about 176,000 volunteers and provided overnight stays in shelters to 3 million people.

“We have brought an unprecedented amount of resources into the field, and in a very quick period of time,” Evans said. “But we certainly accept the criticism that we weren’t everywhere we were needed.... In a disaster of this scope it is inevitable that we are not going to be able to reach everyone.”

Red Cross officials emphasize that the organization has avoided the controversies it stirred up after the Sept. 11 attacks. The charity was criticized when it put terrorism-related donations into a fund for other disasters. This time, the Red Cross is funneling all the money donated for Katrina relief to Katrina projects -- short-term emergency relief such as food, shelter, temporary housing and cash assistance. The charity has made weekly announcements about how much money is being spent and where.

These assurances, however, are scant comfort to victims and relief workers.

Richardson, the waiter, was furious when the Red Cross shut down its DeKalb County operation without warning. Local officials had criticized the operation for long lines and inefficiency, saying the dysfunction provoked a near riot. They demanded that the charity leave, and the Red Cross vacated the site last week.

Richardson, with no car, had to travel 26 miles by bus to the next-closest center.

“Could they make it any more difficult for people to get to?” said the 45-year-old father of three, who is living with his family in a hotel room paid for by local groups.

The Atlanta dispute began two weeks ago, when Vernon Jones, chief executive of DeKalb County, said the Red Cross had created a “hostile environment” at the center, with its red tape and bad communication. The agency compounded evacuees’ frustration by issuing debit cards that they knew would not work, Jones said.

Red Cross officials denied that the situation was out of control, insisting that long lines were not unusual during massive relief operations. Though he didn’t comment on debit cards, Atlanta Red Cross spokesman Bill Reynolds said the charity opened cases for more than 38,000 families in Georgia, and provided more than $41.7 million in aid.

In New Orleans, tempers flared as thousands tried repeatedly -- with no luck -- to reach an operator at a toll-free phone line the Red Cross set up to help people get debit cards.

“No one is getting help here,” said Eric Wilson, 50, at a Red Cross center in the Algiers neighborhood. “There is one number to phone for Texas, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Everybody’s fingers are getting numb trying to get attention, and we are not getting it.”

A few miles south, in Belle Chasse, the Red Cross had set up a phone bank at an aid station where residents could call the toll-free number that made Wilson so angry. The crowd of 200 to 300 had a long wait -- only one phone was working.

Tadlock, the teacher, was there for the second day, trying to get assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and several other agencies. She kept dialing the number on her cellphone until she finally reached a Red Cross representative, who took down her claim.

“All told it took me 20 hours of calling to get the Red Cross,” said Tadlock, who kept the line open on her cellphone to allow six other women to file claims before the battery died.

Some groups, exasperated by red tape, have taken matters into their own hands.

“We asked them [Red Cross officials] for help because, two weeks out, we knew a lot of people in rural Mississippi and Alabama weren’t getting help,” Brown said.

The Mobile-based relief worker drove a van to Gulfport, Miss., hoping to get Red Cross assistance. She brought video footage with her showing the devastation of hard-to-reach communities. Weeks after Katrina, she said, residents still had no power or water and had not seen any relief workers.

After waiting three hours to meet with a Red Cross official, Brown asked if her group could partner with the charity, making it eligible to receive food, water and other supplies. She asked if the Red Cross could buy gasoline for her van; Brown was planning to take some Gulfport residents back to Alabama that night because they had run out of patience waiting for help in their communities.

In both cases, Brown said, the answer was no. The Red Cross official explained that her group had to go through a certification process.

“This woman was very nice and apologized, saying she couldn’t help me. But she gave me a box of Juicy Juice. I was floored. This is the best they could do?”

Evans and other Red Cross officials said their organization had been doing the best it could, under extremely difficult circumstances. Some charity experts, despite their criticisms of the overall relief effort, agree.

“Given the magnitude of what the Red Cross has had to do, I think they’ve performed pretty well so far,” said Curt Welling, president and CEO of AmeriCares, an international relief group that is volunteering services in the Gulf Coast.

A number of prominent, international relief agencies came to the region immediately after Katrina, because they felt the situation called for different kinds of relief. Several of them have dealt with massive disasters, such as the 2004 tsunami.

That experience could be helpful in the months ahead, said Mark Bartolini, a worker for the International Rescue Committee, which has been involved in efforts in developing countries.

There will be a huge need for housing reconstruction in the Gulf Coast “for months and years, long after many organizations have moved on to other disasters,” said Michael Delaney, an official with Oxfam America, another international agency working in the region. “We’re concerned that so little of the money raised so far would seem to be available for the work of restoring people’s lives over the long haul.”

Other observers take a more practical view.

There may indeed be more pressing, long-term needs that will become evident, said Trent Stamp, president and executive director of Charity Navigator, a group based in Mahwah, N.J., that evaluates charities for potential donors. But the Red Cross donations were given by people who saw the horrific images coming out of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and wanted to relieve immediate pain and suffering -- not to support long-term recovery programs.

“If any organization is going to get 75% of the funds in a disaster, the Red Cross is as good a destination as any,” Stamp said. “In an ideal world, the money would have been distributed a little more evenly perhaps. But that’s not the way it works.”

Gaouette reported from Belle Chasse, Getlin from New York and Jarvie from Atlanta.