September 5, 2008 | Read Time: 4 minutes
As disaster-relief groups prepare for hurricanes and tropical storms that could reach coastal areas in the United States next week, many are concerned that donations will fall far short of the cost of relief operations.
Despite urgent requests — including appeals by the presidential candidates on their Web sites and through text messages — charity officials running relief operations say that donations so far are coming in more slowly than in previous disasters. They cite two factors: the poor economy and news coverage that has stressed lighter-than-expected damage from the two storms so far.
The American Red Cross, for example, has raised about $5-million for hurricane relief this year, but that is nowhere close to the $40-million to $70-million the charity estimates that it will spend on relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. The storm, which made landfall earlier this week, left close to a million people without power as of Thursday.
That is causing victims to turn to the charity for food and shelter for longer periods than initially expected, says Lesly Simmons, a Red Cross spokeswoman.
Potential donors, she says, “are seeing that the storm was not as structurally damaging as Hurricane Katrina and not realizing that it is very difficult to return to normal. People can go back home, but the power is out and may be out for a while. A lot of the calls we are getting now are from people who got home and have no power, so they need a place to stay and something to eat.”
Running on Empty
Slow donations to the Red Cross are exacerbated by the fact that contributions to its disaster-relief fund, which it had hoped to use in paying for hurricane-relief operations this year, have been down for months.
In July, the Red Cross estimated that it needed from $80-million to $100-million in the fund before entering this year’s hurricane season, but in essence it had nothing.
One reason: Red Cross relief operations in response to California wildfires and midwest floods this summer generated fewer-than-needed donations
Ms. Simmons says that the Red Cross has started borrowing money to meet the expenses of its Gustav relief efforts.
Meanwhile, in Florida, where residents are still recovering from massive flooding caused by tropical storm Fay last month, disaster-relief officials say the economy has made it harder to raise money for their recovery operations.
Even as they begin to work to repair Fay’s damage, at an estimated cost of $175-million, many organizations are now also involved in providing food and shelter for evacuees from areas affected by Gustav.
“We are in a unique situation different from [the disasters of] 2004 and 2005, because the economy was stronger then,” says Wendy Spencer, chief executive officer of the Governor’s Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service, a Tallahassee agency that works with more than 100 charities in responding to disasters throughout Florida.
“The charities we work with,” Ms. Spencer continues, “all have other work. They have been hit by increased need due to the economy and a decrease in donations prior to the storms, so they were not as prepared as they would like to be.”
Last month after tropical storm Fay hit, for example, the Florida Association of Food Banks, reported that financial contributions to its 16 member food banks were down by 28 percent in the preceding three months, compared to the same period last year. At the same time, requests for food products to sustain needy individuals and families had increased by 34 percent.
“Donors are still there but giving less,” says Hawley Botchford, the association’s executive director. “For most food banks, inventories are very low, we are just not seeing the food come in. With people being economically challenged, add in disaster response and it is going to be a long season. I am already tired of it.”
‘Rural and Coastal’
Officials at the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, in Baton Rouge, say they need $1-million to $2-million to respond to short-term needs following Gustav.
Created just days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the foundation raised $49-million within a year’s time. So far, the response to Gustav has brought in $25,000 to $30,000, “certainly less than we expect,” says Flozell Daniels, Jr., the organization’s president. “The coverage is saying that New Orleans got a pass, when that’s actually not the case. And it hasn’t taken into account the tremendous damage in rural and coastal communities.”
Still, Mr. Daniels says that he is hopeful that more donors will respond once they see what the longer-term needs are, particularly with more storms on the way. “Disaster,” he says, “is unfortunately the new normal in America.”
Cassie Moore and Paula Wasley contributed to this article.
