Cash needed to help Katrina’s victims

1:52 p.m., Aug. 31, 2005--The UD community can reach out to Hurricane Katrina’s victims in Gulf Coast states through aid agencies recommended by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

However, volunteers should not report directly to the affected areas unless directed by a voluntary agency, according to FEMA.

“Cash donations are especially helpful to victims,” Michael D. Brown, federal undersecretary of homeland security for emergency preparedness and response, said. “They allow volunteer agencies to issue cash vouchers to victims so they can meet their needs. Cash donations also allow agencies to avoid the labor-intensive need to store, sort, pack and distribute donated goods. Donated money prevents, too, the prohibitive cost of air or sea transportation that donated goods require.”

Volunteer agencies provide a wide variety of services after disasters, such as clean up, child care, housing repair, crisis counseling, sheltering and food.

“We’re grateful for the outpouring of support already,” Brown said. “But it’s important that volunteer response is coordinated by the professionals who can direct volunteers with the appropriate skills to the hardest-hit areas where they are needed most. Self-dispatched volunteers and especially sightseers can put themselves and others in harm’s way and hamper rescue efforts.”

FEMA issued the list below of phone numbers set up solely for cash donations and/or volunteers.

Donate cash to:

American Red Cross
1-800-HELP NOW (435-7669) English
1-800-257-7575 Spanish

America’s Second Harvest
1-800-344-8070

Operation Blessing
1-800-436-6348

Donate cash to and volunteer with:

Adventist Community Services
1-800-381-7171

Catholic Charities, USA
(703) 549-1390

Christian Disaster Response
(941) 956-5183 or (941) 551-9554

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
1-800-848-5818

Church World Service
1-800-297-1516

Convoy of Hope
(417) 823-8998

Lutheran Disaster Response
1-800-638-3522

Mennonite Disaster Service
(717) 859-2210

Nazarene Disaster Response
1-888-256-5886

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
1-800-872-3283

Salvation Army
1-800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769)

Southern Baptist Convention-Disaster Relief
1-800-462-8657, extension 6440

United Methodist Committee on Relief
1-800-554-8583

For more information, visit the web site for the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) at [www.nvoad.org/].

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