The Red Cross Coming Home to Roost: Remember 9/11, Anyone?
Richard Walden
"The details are brief. The Red Cross responded to 9/11 by opening a few shelters to which no one came; tried to trace missing persons but were pushed aside when the World Trade Center site was dubbed a crime scene and police and FBI took over identification of missing persons; and, served coffee and
donuts to rescue workers at the World Trade Center site only to be accused of charging for them. (It later paid Daniel Bouley, New York's star chef, to cook for them after the news about charging for coffee was made public.)
The Red Cross' own 9/11 Liberty Fund indeed shows only $336,000 in US or state government reimbursement for what little it did do as a "first responder," a designation equal to police, fire and emergency medical service personnel.
They can indeed spend the money they have collected for Katrina -- $750 million as of September 19th -- on people and community institutions in need beyond what they will get back from FEMA and the state governments; but there is no history of them doing so to any significant extent. Local chapters, yes; it's their community's disaster. The national Red Cross, unlikely; they were the ones who did not appear in New Orleans and pulled out their local chapter from its own community."
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