|
|
Hurricane Katrina: How You Can Help |
|
National Geographic News |
| Updated September 8, 2005 |
|
How can you make a difference to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the U.S. Gulf Coast earlier this week? Send money, says Michael D. Brown, U.S. Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response. Whatever you do, he adds, please don't travel to affected areas of your own accord. "Cash donations are especially helpful to victims," Brown said in a Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) press release. "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. "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'S SUGGESTED RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS Organizations Requesting Cash Donations Note: 800 and 888 phone numbers work only in the U.S. and Canada Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund (No phone number posted) American Red Cross English: 800 HELP NOW (435 7669) Spanish: 800 257 7575 Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation 877 HELPLA1 Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund 866 230 8903 Network for Good (No phone number posted) National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster +1 703 339 5596 Organizations Requesting Donations of Goods and Services National Emergency Resource Registry (No phone number posted) American Red Cross Web Site (Find Your Local Chapter) (No phone number posted) Organizations Requesting Volunteers American Red Cross Web Site (Find Your Local Chapter) (No phone number posted) USA Freedom Corps 877 USA CORPS U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Health Care Professionals and Relief Personnel Worker Page 866 KATMEDI (866 528 6334) Source: FEMA and USA Freedom Corps Free E-Mail News Updates Sign up for our Inside National Geographic newsletter. Every two weeks we'll send you our top stories and pictures (see sample). |
| © 1996-2008 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved. |