Today's
Feature
Donations for Hurricane Victims.
News release
Voluntary organizations are
seeking cash donations to assist victims of
Hurricane Katrina in Gulf Coast states, according
to Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland
Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response.
But, volunteers should not report directly to the
affected areas unless directed by a voluntary
agency.
"Cash donations are
especially helpful to victims," Brown 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, childcare, 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."
Here is a list of
phone numbers set up solely for cash donations
and/or volunteers.
Cash donations
can be made by calling:
• American
Red Cross 1-800-HELP NOW (435-7669)English,
1-800-257-7575 Spanish;
• Operation
Blessing 1-800-436-6348
•
America’s Second Harvest 1-800-344-8070
Cash and
volunteer work can be donated by calling:
• 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 800-638-3522
• Mennonite
Disaster Service 717-859-2210
• Nazarene
Disaster Response 888-256-5886
•
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance 800-872-3283
• Salvation
Army 1-800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769)
• Southern
Baptist Convention — Disaster Relief
1-800-462-8657, ext. 6440
• United
Methodist Committee on Relief 1-800-554-8583
More information
can be found on the website for the National
Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster
(NVOAD) at: http://www.nvoad.org/.
FEMA prepares the
nation for all hazards and manages federal
response and recovery efforts following any
national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation
activities, trains first responders, works with
state and local emergency managers, and manages
the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S.
Fire Administration. FEMA became part of the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.
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