Business > Donations Pour in for Katrina Relief

Donations Pour in for Katrina Relief As Aid Groups Work to Reach Victims

Jennifer Lamkin, right, collects a donation to the Red Cross for Hurricane Relief from Clarence Dix as she collected money in downtown Indianapolis, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005. The Red Cross already has raised $200 million and total donations may top U.S. g

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 already 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, they are facing numerous complications, including being barred by government officials from distributing aid in New Orleans.

The scope of the devastation is also making it difficult to zero in on precisely where their help is most needed, and the challenge of getting it there safely and securely is changing almost hourly, according to the relief agencies.

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, 2001 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 about 240 emergency shelters in schools, churches and community centers throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and estimated it was housing about 100,000 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 all the 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."

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 Writer Theresa Agovino in New York contributed to this story.

2005-09-03