Red Cross’s Actions After Hurricane Katrina Criticized in Congressional Watchdog’s Report

By Elizabeth Schwinn

As the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struggled last year to find food and housing, relief was delayed by a bureaucratic squabble between the American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency over what duties the nonprofit group and the government agency were expected to assume, according to a Congressional report released this month.

The two institutions have yet to fully resolve their differences, raising questions about whether they are prepared to improve their operations during the current hurricane season, which began June 1, said the lawmakers who commissioned the report.

“The report leaves the impression that when the next hurricane hits, leaving people hungry and homeless, FEMA and the Red Cross will be haggling over who’s supposed to provide food and shelter,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement.

Senator Grassley, an Iowa Republican, commissioned the investigation of the Red Cross following widespread complaints that federal help was slow in coming to hurricane victims, or in some cases never arrived.

Confusion Continues

The investigation, conducted by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s watchdog arm, found that the Red Cross and the federal emergency agency — the nation’s front-line responders in a disaster — were still confused about how they would work together in the next hurricane.

“The Red Cross and FEMA need to resolve their working relationship and staffing issues now,” Mr. Grassley said.

A Red Cross spokeswoman said that the charity’s executives have been meeting with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and that many of the problems are on their way to being resolved.

“Those conversations, from what I understand, are still in progress,” said Laura B. Howe, director of response communication and marketing at the Red Cross. However, she added, “We feel like we have made enough strides that we are better prepared. If there is a storm next week, or in the near future, things will run more smoothly.”

The Government Accountability Office’s investigation found that relief was hampered by more than just turf battles.

Among the concerns that the report raised:

• The Red Cross did not have sufficient numbers of trained staff members in the affected states to coordinate relief efforts, relying instead on a system of unpaid volunteers.

• The Red Cross rotated disaster-response employees every two or three weeks. As a result, critical government and local contacts and knowledge had to be repeatedly relearned, further delaying communications.

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency had no way to track all the requests for assistance from other charities and state and local governments that were relayed to it by the Red Cross.

As a result, some nonprofit organizations scaled back relief services, not knowing when or if they would receive the supplies they needed.

Ms. Howe said that the Red Cross will train volunteers to coordinate with federal employees, and plans to hire employees to work with federal emergency officials in each state, to resolve the problems the Government Accountability Office identified.

A copy of the report, “Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Coordination between FEMA and the Red Cross Should Be Improved for the 2006 Hurricane Season,” (GAO-06-712), can be obtained from the Government Accountability Office Web site at http://www.gao.gov.