A pair of massive, once-in-a-generation storms lambasted regions of the
U.S., leaving in their wake destruction, some death and havoc. Hundreds
of thousands of people were without food, shelter and power, many for
weeks on end.
But Americans responded like they always do after
such disasters, whether they occur on home soil or abroad: They opened
up their pocketbooks and donated to charities ostensibly aimed at
helping victims.
In particular, according to a recent investigative report by ProPublica and National Public Radio,
Americans sent the Red Cross hundreds of millions of dollars because
they believed that their donations would be well used to relieve the
suffering of victims pounded by Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Isaac.
It didn't happen. Per the report:
The
Red Cross botched key elements of its mission after Sandy and Isaac,
leaving behind a trail of unmet needs and acrimony, according to an
investigation.... The charity's shortcomings were detailed in
confidential reports and internal emails, as well as accounts from
current and former disaster relief specialists.
"Multiple systems failed"
In
addition, the investigation found that Red Cross officials in the
nation's capital deepened the charity's incoherent response by
"diverting assets for public relations purposes," according to this internal Red Cross report. Furthermore, the distribution of relief supplies was "politically driven."
Red
Cross supervisors during Isaac directed dozens of trucks that are most
commonly used to deliver aid to be driven around mostly empty, "just to
be seen," according to one of the drivers, Jim Dunham.
"We were
sent way down on the Gulf with nothing to give," Dunham told
investigative reporters. In many ways, he added, the Red Cross's relief
effort was "worse than the storm."
During Sandy, which ravaged
the East Coast, emergency vehicles were diverted from relief work to be
used as props for press conferences, which angered disaster response
personnel who were attempting to mitigate the storm's damaging effects.
Following both storms, the investigative report continued, problems inherent in the Red Cross
left a number of victims in dangerous circumstances in which they were
vulnerable to harm, as the charity's internal assessments even stated.
For example, victims who were handicapped "slept in their wheelchairs
for days," because Red Cross officials had failed to secure adequate
numbers of cots.
Also, in one shelter, sex offenders were "all
over including playing in [a] children's area," because Red Cross
workers "didn't know/follow procedures."
The investigative report further states:
According
to interviews and documents, the Red Cross lacked basic supplies like
food, blankets and batteries to distribute to victims in the days just
after the storms. Sometimes, even when supplies were plentiful, they
went to waste. In one case, the Red Cross had to throw out tens of
thousands of meals because it couldn't find the people who needed them.
Hardly "near flawless"
As
it usually does, the Red Cross managed to assemble a small army of
volunteers for the disasters. But, as the investigative report found,
many of them were ill-used or misdirected by management personnel.
Following Sandy, for instance, volunteers meandered through the streets
of New York in search of neighborhoods that had been hit but lost their
way because they had not been given GPS equipment to guide them.
And
as he so often does, President Obama -- the Red Cross's honorary
chairman -- came out on the wrong side of an issue; he publicly endorsed
the charity following Superstorm Sandy, assuring the American people that the "Red Cross knows what they're doing."
Moreover,
two weeks after Sandy, the charity's chief executive, Gail McGovern,
said the group's relief efforts had been "near flawless."
But self-assessments were far less congratulatory.
"Multiple
systems failed," say the minutes of a closed-door meeting of top Red
Cross officials in December 2012, in reference to operational logistics.
"We
didn't have the kind of sophistication needed for this size job," noted
a Red Cross vice president in the same meeting, according to the
minutes. See them here: Propublica.org.
Sources:
http://www.npr.org
http://www.propublica.org
http://www.propublica.org
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