Top four worst, and best, ways to help after a disaster

[thackney]

http://www.pnwumc.org/news/top-four-worst-and-best-ways-to-help-after-a-disaster/

...Resist the urge to jump from your couch and drive to the disaster site. When Hurricane Sandy struck the mid-Atlantic, scores of people decided to drive to New Jersey, New York and other affected areas. The result? Clogged interstates, a worsening gasoline shortage, and volunteers arriving in droves and diverting the attention of emergency personnel. What to do instead? When you watch or read the breaking news about a disaster, respond immediately – with prayer or a cash donation.

Don’t give the shirt off your back. Did you know that donations of used clothing are commonly called “the second disaster?” When clothing piles up at a disaster scene, it must be stored, hauled away or sorted by volunteers who could better use their time helping disaster survivors. Instead, cash donations help disaster survivors purchase needed items from local businesses, which boost an economy weakened by disaster.

Don’t believe that recovery takes only a few days. Well-intentioned donors often give money or relief-supply kits only while a disaster is prominent in the news headlines. In fact, for a major disaster, recovery can take years. If donations dry up after a week or two, responders no longer have the resources to help disaster survivors. Those survivors feel forgotten, and their recovery doesn’t progress.

Don’t forget your own disaster preparation and training. If you want to respond in a safe, helpful way, seek disaster-response training and learn how to prepare yourself so you can respond should the need arise. Preparing can be as simple as forming a plan with your neighbor, or as involved as becoming a specialized responder who serves on a United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Early Response Team....

[thackney]

Salvation Army Accepting Donations to Help With Hurricane Harvey
http://www.nbcdfw.com/weather/stories/Salvation-Army-Accepting-Donations-to-Help-With-Hurricane-Harvey-441754513.html

The Salvation Army has mobilized to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey and is accepting donations to help those in the path of the storm.

Anyone interested in making a financial donation can do so online (CLICK HERE) or call 1-800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769).

Truckloads of emergency supplies including pallets of water, energy drinks, clean up kits and shelter supplies have been dispatched to strategic locations along the Texas coast.

Salvation Army mobile kitchens have also been stocked and deployed to serve in the immediate aftermath of the storms landfall....

https://give.salvationarmyusa.org/site/Donation2;jsessionid=00000000.app30108b?df_id=27651&mfc_pref=T&27651.donation=form1&NONCE_TOKEN=7B60DF35975E7474321D70112DDBAB7E

[berdie]

I don't mean to sound crass...but send money. (my personal favorite is Salvation Army and Texas Baptist Men.)

If you send stuff...volunteer groups have to find a way to store it for distribution in an already devastated area. jmho

[jmyrlefuller]

Short version: send money, and keep sending money.

Typical American church mentality.

[Applewood]

I don't mean to sound crass...but send money. (my personal favorite is Salvation Army and Texas Baptist Men.)

If you send stuff...volunteer groups have to find a way to store it for distribution in an already devastated area. jmho

Not crass at all.  I give money.  Chances are, whatever else I might give them may not be wanted or needed. With money, they can get whatever is needed.  I trust the Salvation Army.  Some of the other charities just might pocket my donation.

[verga]

Donating through the Salvation Army is the best way to go. The Red Cross has a history of not using money allocated/ earmarked for a certain disaster and instead keeping it for later use.

[mountaineer]

Samaritan's Purse is a trustworthy organization, too.

[Restored]

The Red Cross paid half a million dollars to move their CEO to DC. ????

[Applewood]

My Dad didn't trust most charities, but he had nothing but admiration and appreciation for the Salvation Army.  During WW II, both the Salvation Army and the Red Cross would come around with cigarettes, candy, socks, toiletries, etc. for the GIs wherever they might be.  The difference between the SA and the RC is that the RC charged the soldiers for these items, while the SA did not.  And I believe the SA helped a lot of these young men far from home and perhaps frightened, with prayer and encouragement. 

During the same war, a friend of my mother volunteered for the Red Cross working out of a drafty old warehouse.  On one occasion, this friend visited the local chapter's executive offices in Pittsburgh.  The friend said the executive offices had plush carpeting and fancy furnishings while the volunteers toiled in almost slum-like conditions.  Not long after, the friend quit the Red Cross.

[verga]

My Dad didn't trust most charities, but he had nothing but admiration and appreciation for the Salvation Army.  During WW II, both the Salvation Army and the Red Cross would come around with cigarettes, candy, socks, toiletries, etc. for the GIs wherever they might be.  The difference between the SA and the RC is that the RC charged the soldiers for these items, while the SA did not.  And I believe the SA helped a lot of these young men far from home and perhaps frightened, with prayer and encouragement. 

During the same war, a friend of my mother volunteered for the Red Cross working out of a drafty old warehouse.  On one occasion, this friend visited the local chapter's executive offices in Pittsburgh.  The friend said the executive offices had plush carpeting and fancy furnishings while the volunteers toiled in almost slum-like conditions.  Not long after, the friend quit the Red Cross.

My FIL had the same thing happen in WWII, and my father said the same about his time in Korea. Snopes make the claim that the Army forced them to do that. My question is why wasn't the SA forced to then? Snopes is a liberal rag and I don't believe jack from them any more.

[Silver Pines]

Donating through the Salvation Army is the best way to go. The Red Cross has a history of not using money allocated/ earmarked for a certain disaster and instead keeping it for later use.

@verga

I've been seeing articles about the inefficiency of the Red Cross.  I trust the Salvation Army.

Gleaning For The World has been repeatedly chosen by Forbes as the most efficient large charity in the country.  They're about five minutes down the road from me, in Concord, VA.

https://gftw.org/

[Hondo69]

Greedy, profiteering, scum-sucking small businesses like mine will do our fair share like we always do.  And we won't go on CNN to tell the world how awesome we are like the run of the mill gutter snipes you see there on a regular basis.  We do it because it is the right thing to do.

[Gefn]

Bookmarking.

Thanks for the tip about the Salvation Army


Charity Finder ranks them very highly.

[verga]

@verga

I've been seeing articles about the inefficiency of the Red Cross.  I trust the Salvation Army.

Gleaning For The World has been repeatedly chosen by Forbes as the most efficient large charity in the country.  They're about five minutes down the road from me, in Concord, VA.

https://gftw.org/

@CatherineofAragon I just heard about them on "The Journey" radio station this morning. My wife donated through the SA yesterday afternoon.

[Gefn]

@CatherineofAragon I just heard about them on "The Journey" radio station this morning. My wife donated through the SA yesterday afternoon.

Someone should tell @mystery-ak to add it to her hyperlinks on the front page.

It looks like a good charity.

I went to Wells Fargo Bank today and they are collecting for the Red Cross. So is Apple.

[musiclady]

@verga

I've been seeing articles about the inefficiency of the Red Cross.  I trust the Salvation Army.

Gleaning For The World has been repeatedly chosen by Forbes as the most efficient large charity in the country.  They're about five minutes down the road from me, in Concord, VA.

https://gftw.org/

I can't forget how inefficiently and unfaithfully the Red Cross behaved after 9/11.

The Salvation Army has been faithful with funds for a century.  Samaritan's Purse is much newer, but you can be sure your money is going to the need and not to line the pockets of those who run it.

[Silver Pines]

@CatherineofAragon I just heard about them on "The Journey" radio station this morning. My wife donated through the SA yesterday afternoon.

@verga

I think your money will be well spent.  My husband is acquainted with Ron Davidson, the minister who started and runs the charity...says he's a good man.

[Silver Pines]

I can't forget how inefficiently and unfaithfully the Red Cross behaved after 9/11.

The Salvation Army has been faithful with funds for a century.  Samaritan's Purse is much newer, but you can be sure your money is going to the need and not to line the pockets of those who run it.

@musiclady

I remember that----they mismanaged funds to a terrible degree.  I decided then that I would donate elsewhere in the future.

[austingirl]

I can't forget how inefficiently and unfaithfully the Red Cross behaved after 9/11.

The Salvation Army has been faithful with funds for a century.  Samaritan's Purse is much newer, but you can be sure your money is going to the need and not to line the pockets of those who run it.

Donated to the Salvation Army- not the Red Cross.

[Gefn]

Amazon has a wish list for people affected by the hurricane. Just a FYI.

They have phone rechargers which I could afford for 7.50.

I hope it helps someone.

They need a lot of baby things but they were expensive 

[musiclady]

@musiclady

I remember that----they mismanaged funds to a terrible degree.  I decided then that I would donate elsewhere in the future.

We volunteer at our local Salvation Army, and my husband is on the board.

They are a completely trustworthy organization with very low overhead.

The Red Cross lost all credibility with me after 9/11, and we haven't donated to them since.

@CatherineofAragon  @austingirl

[Silver Pines]

We volunteer at our local Salvation Army, and my husband is on the board.

They are a completely trustworthy organization with very low overhead.

The Red Cross lost all credibility with me after 9/11, and we haven't donated to them since.

@CatherineofAragon  @austingirl

@musiclady

I've always trusted the Salvation Army.

[austingirl]

We volunteer at our local Salvation Army, and my husband is on the board.

They are a completely trustworthy organization with very low overhead.

The Red Cross lost all credibility with me after 9/11, and we haven't donated to them since.

@CatherineofAragon  @austingirl

Low overhead and dedicated people. One of my regular charities.

[Smokin Joe]

My Dad didn't trust most charities, but he had nothing but admiration and appreciation for the Salvation Army.  During WW II, both the Salvation Army and the Red Cross would come around with cigarettes, candy, socks, toiletries, etc. for the GIs wherever they might be.  The difference between the SA and the RC is that the RC charged the soldiers for these items, while the SA did not.  And I believe the SA helped a lot of these young men far from home and perhaps frightened, with prayer and encouragement. 

During the same war, a friend of my mother volunteered for the Red Cross working out of a drafty old warehouse.  On one occasion, this friend visited the local chapter's executive offices in Pittsburgh.  The friend said the executive offices had plush carpeting and fancy furnishings while the volunteers toiled in almost slum-like conditions.  Not long after, the friend quit the Red Cross.

I heard from veterans of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam how the contents of their Red Cross packages were sold to them. Yep. sold.
It was a Red Cross van that wiped out my 70 Coronet 440 during the flood in Grand Forks in '79, T-boned me, failed to yield, speeding in a residential area, hit right behind my seat and bent the car, knocking it 4 feet sideways and spinning me down a side street. The RC didn't want to even pay for the car.  The concussion didn't help my grad school career, even though I had already found work in the oilfields and decided to quit (This was the week before exam week).
By contrast, earlier that week, seven of us unloaded seven semi loads of sandbags in the rain in the middle of the night in East Grand Forks, and pressed a 150 foot long bulge out of the polyethylene at the base of the dike, reinforcing it and keeping it intact. About three AM the Salvation Army canteen wagon came by, and never in my life has a cup of coffee and a hot sandwich ("sloppy joe") tasted so good. The RC was nowhere to be seen.

By daylight we had the dike reinforced, and it held.

As for me, my money goes to the Salvation Army. 

[INVAR]

Short version: send money, and keep sending money.

Typical American church mentality.

In the case of a major disaster like this, the 'typical church mentality' as you put it - is the right thing to do for starters.

Donating food and clothing - unless specifically asked for - creates an entirely different problem when pallets of sweaters show up in hot September in a bayou.

After Katrina, when the time came, we waited until the news died down and people were still focused on New Orleans when we went down to Pascagoula with a crew to serve with the Southern Baptist Men.   They had the city gridded out with the Lutheran Church Charities.   They sent us in squads to mud out homes and  tear out the bloated insulation and bleach the inside walls that were swollen from floodwater, all the way up to the first floor ceiling in some homes.  Funds sent in helped them keep kitchens running, and supply all of us volunteers with supplies to do our jobs - including washing our clothes each evening after we finished.

Pascagoula had no help from the Red Cross or FEMA when we got there.  Everything was sent to the Gulfport area or New Orleans.  People had been sitting atop the ruins of their homes and residents said that if it were not for church groups flooding in there, they would have been left alone to rot in the ruins.  One lady whose home we yanked all the flooded carpets out of told us that the only thing FEMA did was commandeer volunteers to pass out flyers about where residents could go online to get help.  The entire area had no power, and no way to get online.  But that was the efficiency of government.

The most amazing thing we witnessed while doing our tour down there, was that the local black population had no interest in helping themselves except to get a free handout.  The camp we served out of would see carloads of locals drive up and demand "our stuff' - and when the Director told them that for a day's work in their neighborhood, they would receive a meal and clean clothes and supplies to provide their household - the four-letter expletives flew.  They had no interest in helping anyone, not even cleaning up their own homes which I guess were largely rented.  They just wanted hand outs.

The zeal to help out in Texas will die out in a couple of weeks once this news is off the front page.  That is the time we generally begin to plan our tour of service.