Update to this story…

Not for me…but about the “inadequecies” of our wonderful Red Cross USA…

Source…

Dispute Impeded Red Cross Katrina Response

By HOPE YEN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The American Red Cross was warned years before Katrina hit to resolve its internal disputes or risk a repeat of snafus that plagued the Sept. 11, 2001 relief effort, according to internal documents made public by a Senate panel Monday.

Thousands of pages of Red Cross e-mail, corporate documents and whistleblower complaints paint a picture of an organization whose mammoth structure contributed to the charity’s uneven response to Hurricane Katrina.

In an Oct. 29, 2001 e-mail, board member Bill George warned Red Cross chairman David McLaughlin to resolve the group’s disputes. At the time, the nation’s largest charity was reeling from CEO Bernadine Healy’s resignation amid charges it had mismanaged Sept. 11 donations.

“The worst thing we could do is to gloss over the split on the board, make some superficial changes in governance, and see the whole scenario repeated three or four years from now,” the Medtronic Inc. executive wrote.

“I do not think the board can continue kidding itself that it wants a strong leader and then not giving that person the authority to lead,” he said. Four years later, the group’s next CEO, Marsha Evans, would resign in the aftermath of Katrina, citing board friction.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, calling for immediate changes, warned the Red Cross board Monday that “‘business-as-usual’ cannot continue.” He said the documents raise questions about the Red Cross’ ability to keep close watch on billions of dollars in donations.

“This type of culture, a culture that discourages people from coming forward, management that does not want to hear the bad news, and is more concerned about good press than good results, is a theme that I am hearing too often,” said Grassley, who as Finance Committee chairman oversees charitable organizations.

His committee released the documents Monday.

In a statement, the Red Cross said it would fully cooperate with the committee’s review. The charity has said it responded to Katrina the best it could in circumstances almost unimaginable, while acknowledging that it stumbled in “technology, logistics and coordination.”

“The American Red Cross is committed to learning from our prior challenges and making the necessary changes,” the charity said Monday, noting it had recently launched an independent audit to review operations.

A House report earlier this month on the Katrina response found the Red Cross was overwhelmed by water, food and supply shortages as well as a disorganized shelter process. Some lawmakers have called for a change to the national response plan that gives the Red Cross the primary role and the dollars that flow with it.

Replying to a Senate inquiry, the Red Cross said this month it was working to improve coordination with FEMA and local charity groups.

It said it had no “fixed deadline” for hiring a new CEO to replace Evans, who took over in August 2002 as the organization was shaking off criticism over how it handled Sept. 11 donations, some of which were quietly set aside for future terror incidents.

In dozens of letters to Grassley’s office, former Red Cross employees and volunteers detail a culture of inefficiency in which poor communications, layers of bureaucracy and resistance to change contributed to waste and chaos after Katrina struck.

Typical of the complaints: Red Cross trucks rolling in with goods or sitting idle in parking lots, but not always accounted for; volunteers staying in hotels rather than shelters, holding them for use in case it was needed for someone “with more privilege in the organization;” orders placed for food well in excess of need; extensive travel paid for at retail rather than pre-negotiated volume cost.

“We ask for the Red Cross to be more accountable for donor funds,” wrote Christee Lesch, a hurricane volunteer from Adel, Iowa. “They tell the public how much money has been spent on disaster relief, but not how well it is spent.”

Documents also show Red Cross leaders eager to repair the group’s image following its fundraising flap, but at times uncertain how to navigate among the local chapters, which represent 30 of the charity’s 50-member board. Ultimately, Evans was counted on - unsuccessfully - to smooth out problems.

In a June 18, 2002, letter, Bill Van Eman, chairman of the Brazos Valley, Texas, chapter complained that the charity’s national leaders were unfairly asking the chapter, following media criticism, to lower its administrative costs below 10 percent of funds raised.

“Allowing us to have a small portion of the funds raised was a wise idea,” Eman wrote. “It could have been phrased as a ’special administrative cost’ and not a soul would have said anything. … If all we get as local chapters is bad publicity and additional paperwork, I do not feel this is a wise use of funds.”

McLaughlin responded: “Withholding some funds to cover chapter expenses makes infinitely good sense. With our new president on board, I suspect that we will be undertaking a thoughtful analysis of how we fund disaster response.”

On the Net:

Senate Finance Committee: http://finance.senate.gov/

And, furthermore, here are the Senate Documents regarding this current situation…

February 2006
2-27-06 Grassley Urges Red Cross to Improve Governance, Respond to Volunteers’ Concerns

American Red Cross’ Response to Sen. Grassley’s Specific Questions in his Dec. 29, 2005, Letter

Documents from the American Red Cross Supporting its Response to Grassley’s Dec. 29, 2005, Letter

Response 1, Response 2, Response 3, Response 4, Response 5, Response 6, Response 7, Response 8

…from the Red Cross. Yes…THAT Red Cross…

Seems that a handful of files I have been offering for download for many years (since 2002) has offended them. The files were received, in good faith, from a team member of the Witchita Falls Emergency Management Agency many moons before 2002, on CD for me to share with the world via my website.

I even put them on my first CD rom publication in 2002, after checking with my local chapter of the Red Cross in Worland, Wyoming, and getting their permission after they viewed the entire CD. After that, my CD master disk had to go through a copyright check before thousands of copies were made at cost, to be GIVEN AWAY by a good friend of mine in the preparedness business. The manufacturer went through every file, and found NO copyright issues.

Now, here some 3 years later, the Red Cross has “caught up” with me (literally…the envelope contained copies of letters sent [and returned] by the USPS in Nov. 2004, and July 2005. They want me to remove 133 files from the CD master. View the actual letter here.

I sent a nice return email to the Office of General Counsel of the Red Cross asking clarification of exactly what they were saying…

What I didn’t include was some rude, crude, and socially unacceptable comments about how the Red Cross seems to steal, lose, or otherwise screw people out of their hard earned money, even to the point of STEALING services and REFUSING TO PAY ANYTHING for use of equipment they used and abused after signing contracts stating they would be responsible for…

For example, a good friend of mine, “Alfie”, is based in the DC area. He has had personal dealings with these folks, who have their “ivory tower”, a huge headquarters in Merrifield (where their letter was postmarked from, incidentally). He shared the following with me…

“Alfie” recommends I pursue this hard…if the Red Cross decides to rain down their own little game of terrorism on a poor, hard working family man who is paying his own way, as well as for his wife and two kids, through full time college at the same time.

“Alfie” suggest that I follow through and consider these options…

“Alfie”, I have to agree with you. I have done NOTHING but HELP get these life saving documents into the hands of tens of thousands of Americans in the past 4 years since the events of September 11th, 2001. I’ve shared over 600 gigabytes of files with 700,000 unique visitors in that same time, and ALL on my own dime.

If I have to redo the CD…no problem. If I have to remove the files from my site, no problem. I’ll just do it.

If I have to go to the mass media…main stream media…underground media…to let the world know that the Red Cross…the agency so many millions of Americans have come to WANT to depend on…DOES NOT want to share life saving information as WIDELY and OPENLY as possible, well…I’ll just have to do that as well.

Want to see the files for youself? Check out the file set here… I also have all the files from the 1998 FEMA CD Rom titled Fema Disaster Preparedness & Mitigation Library • 1998 edition also on the site. They are also all available for free.

The REDCROSS files use less than 27 megabytes of space. The FEMA CD rom file set use just over 33 megabytes. The PDF navigation fails to work for the FEMA file set, but I have a php script that lists every file in the set, on the server and creates a browser link to the file.

Both of these sets have been COMPLETELY free for every visitor to the site.

I state on the CD set that I sell, that I only ask payment for the many dozens of files *I* have created over the years, and NOT for the rest of the government and preparedness digital files that I have added to the set, to compile in one place, a massive collection of over 19,000 pages of survival and preparedness information. From Day One of this online project, it has been about SHARING the info…not making a profit.

Please read the letter as it was received, and see if you can detect any goodwill from the Red Cross. I am concerned for their actions. I will post any reply I receive from them, here.

Support your local Red Cross chapter….somehow….

I’ll be removing the files in question from the RED CROSS folder of SurvivalRing.org, as well as the directory on the Civil Defense Now Ultimate Digital Library CD Number One, and putting the excised files into their own unique directory, and a statement to the effect that the RED CROSS does not, and has never created, supported, or is in any way connected with the files in question.

Joy to the world, my friends….