This is the largest response to a single natural disaster in the 125 years of the American Red Cross, and there's no doubt it will set many records in terms of the length and expanse of the operation. |
This is the largest response to a single natural disaster in the 125 years of the American Red Cross, and there's no doubt it will set many records in terms of the length and expanse of the operation. This will test our skills and our resources to the extreme, but the American Red Cross will be just as strong as the will of the American people, and we all know that's a will that won't fail. |
Time is short between now and the next hurricane season. We are focused on how we can improve, and ask that every community review its plans. The time to get together is now. |
We are building an IT (information technology) infrastructure to be able to support 2 million families that have need of financial assistance and we will have that in place by July 1. |
We are proud of the extraordinary efforts of the more than 225,000 Red Crossers who put their day-to-day lives on hold to selflessly help their neighbors in need. Some of them lost everything in these storms, yet they put the needs of their community before their own. |
We could wait until we built a system that was big enough to handle the demand or we could launch what we had and build it as we went along. Did we frustrate people? Yes. ... But we were out there and we were providing all that we could do with what we had. |
We had some areas that we couldn't get to as quick as we would want to. |
We have a long way to go in our fundraising to meet the needs of people from Katrina, let alone what we need to do for the people of Rita. |
We have a long way to go in our fundraising to meet the needs of people from Katrina, let alone what we need to do for the people of Rita. As fast as the money is coming in, we are spending it. |
We knew we ran the risk of putting assistance in the hands of potentially unscrupulous individuals not affected by the hurricanes. We concluded that it was a reasonable business risk and mitigated the risks as possible. |
We need to change who we are. We can have the most robust system possible, but what we need to have are the right volunteers in the right places doing the right work. |
We sheltered about 3.5 million people. The largest night was about 150,000. |
We will put in place in warehouses throughout the affected areas and around the country supplies needed to shelter 500,000 people. We will pre-position meals prepared to eat for a million a day. |
We've learned a lot in the last months. We have taken a large number of steps to be better this hurricane season. We will be more prepared for the worst-case scenario. |