A disaster like this Katrina brings out the best in people, but unfortunately, it also brings out the worst in people, too. |
Every day we were in touch with state officials offering to go in. They said they don't want us in there. |
If a mistake was made, we want to tell people about it. The good news is that the program is going to cost less money to taxpayers than we thought, and we hope it signals that evacuees have found places to go. |
It's frustrating to our thousands of volunteers out there every day, away their families, helping people. We never said we were perfect -- we're trying to do our best under extraordinary circumstances. |
People are getting more creative and sophisticated in their fraud schemes. |
Red Cross determined that it should accelerate the receipt of funds by victims, even if this meant creating a funding gap while pledges turn into actual cash receipts. |
Right now, shelter, meals, water and mental health counseling are things people are in need of. But we're not always hearing exactly what the needs are, because we've had spotty communication with our people on the ground. |
That's an interesting idea. I think everyone's thinking out of the box, aren't they? |
There were contract employees...that were in the call center giving out code numbers [to their friends and family] to go to their local Western Union to pick up money. [These people] were really not Katrina victims. |
This is one of the biggest schemes that we've seen. |
Typically, we open a shelter, the hurricane happens, people hang out there maybe a week or so and then everyone goes home. This time, there's nothing to go home to. |