Hurricane Harvey: Texas politicians warn against donating to Red Cross in wake of disaster

Independent – by Rachel Roberts

Politicians in the hurricane-hit city of Houston are warning against donating to the American Red Cross.

Houston City councillor Dave Martin told a district meeting: “I beg you not to send them a penny” and repeatedly branded the Congress-endorsed charity “the red loss”.

Speaking two weeks after the devastating hurricane which left at least 70 people dead, Mr Martin claimed that local government had done most of the difficult work in the aftermath of the disaster as well as providing the majority of resources.  

“Yet every time I turn on the TV, I see (the Red Cross) taking in millions of dollars in donations,” he said, branding the charity “the most inept, unorganised organisation I’ve ever experienced”.

“Don’t waste your money. Give it to another cause,” added Mr Martin, an independent member of the council who has a background working in private sector management.

Other members of the council told local media after the meeting that they were grateful for the work of thousands of Red Cross volunteers across the region who have helped set up shelters for those forced to leave their homes after the hurricane caused severe flooding.

Other public officials have expressed concern about the organisation, including Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, who reportedly asked a local charity to set up a shelter for those displaced by the hurricane because he did not trust the Red Cross to do so.

“The Red Cross could not have done this. They wouldn’t have had the wherewithal to do it,” Mr Emmett reportedly said. “Don’t get me wrong, they’re out there on the front lines, but I had already seen the difficulty and we needed to get this set up quickly.”

The charity has been criticised for failing to ensure supplies reached shelters quickly enough after one of Houston’s two Red Cross shelters could not accept evacuees at all because of high water levels and the other had just 200 beds for what turned out to be more than 2,000 people.

The shortages of beds continued for days while much of the city remained submerged.

A Red Cross spokeswoman defended the work of the organisation in Houston.

“We had all of our shelters on standby the night before Hurricane Harvey blew in, we had all our supplies ready and waiting to go,” MaryJane Mudd said in a statement.

“In some cases the floodwaters made it a little hard to get those supplies from where they were stationed into the shelters for a short while.

“We’ve had 1,500 people on the ground, we’ve served over 700,000 meals and snacks, we’ve sheltered 40,000 people. I know the plan was there. The process has worked very well.”

The American Red Cross, founded in 1881, has been hit by a series of controversies in recent years, including stinging criticism for the way in which it responded to the 2010 hurricane in Haiti and over Hurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans in 2005.

Although not a government organisation, it is authorised to provide disaster relief since being granted a congressional charter in 1905.

It is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which is believed to have around 100 million volunteers globally.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hurricane-harvey-texas-houston-red-cross-politicians-warn-against-donating-tropical-storm-latest-a7935781.html

10 thoughts on “Hurricane Harvey: Texas politicians warn against donating to Red Cross in wake of disaster

  1. The Red Loss is a perfect description for those losers. I am surprised anyone is still stupid enough to give them one red cent.

  2. Had a teacher in highschool who worked for them once at one of their main offices, he told every class to NEVER, EVER for ANY reason give them ANY money for ANYTHING not EVER. He could not stress it enough and telling how the Red Cross embezels the funding and out of $1 less than a penny actually goes towards whatever it is in question. The rest goes to funding salaries of the higher ups so they can live it up on donations.

  3. The vast majority of ‘charities’ were instituted & are run by the stinking jews.

    In other words… SCAMS!!!

  4. Who’s the author of this article, & for that matter, who’s the website developer, too? With the way it spells “organization: with an “s” and in particular the word “authorized ” but with an “s” too, tells me this author & web developer both aren’t aware of correct spelling and makes the article itself seem like #FakeNews! “Organization” is with a “Z” not an “S”…same with “authorized”! Pronunciation is the KEY! Say it, learn it, then spell it! —- But I have to agree with the comment on Red Cross, heard too many stories on how they rake in millions of $$$ in donations and don’t dole out enough to make a warm pot of soup! I get their emails so I’ll unsubscribe from them, and any regular mail will go to my “file 13” box! My pastor of my church indicated taking donations to a special group set up, so we can donate there or thru a gov’t source, & the White House is one of those.

    1. What!?

      Actually thinking donating to the White House or some govt. agency is WAY worse than misspelling a word.

      Who would EVER think that sending money to the govt. to assist victims of any sort would ever make it past these CROOKS pockets.

      Scolding, scolding.

    2. There are some Chumpeteers who are so brain dead, they don’t realise that the Independent is a U.K. publication and over there in crazy monarchy land, they tend to spell things differently than we do over here in crazy slave state land.
      Although, those two crazies are probably synonymous.
      (And yes, I misspelled “realise” on purpose. Just to piss you off.)

  5. I recall when Katrina hit New Orleans, I was pumping gas into my truck in a small town in Arkansas when all of a sudden cop cars with lights flashing and sirens screaming raced up and closed down the intersection, then came an actual convoy of Walmart semi trucks coming from Bentonville, Walmart headquarters, about ten miles up the road. The trucks were wasting no time and probably had an open road with police escorts all the way to New Orleans. I’m no fan of Walmart but you’ll never see the US government make a similar effort in such haste. I must say, self serving propaganda or not, that was quite an amazing sight to see.

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