Superstorm Sandy anniversary: Red Cross 'diverted assets' during storms' aftermath to focus on image | Emergency Preparedness | Forums

A A A
Avatar

Please consider registering
Guest

Search

— Forum Scope —






— Match —





— Forum Options —





Minimum search word length is 3 characters - maximum search word length is 84 characters

Register Lost password?
sp_Feed F-Emergency-Preparedness
Superstorm Sandy anniversary: Red Cross 'diverted assets' during storms' aftermath to focus on image
Avatar
K
Admin
Forum Posts: 31782
Member Since:
15 Feb ’12
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
1
31 Oct ’14 - 8:39 am
sp_Permalink sp_Print

well color me shocked

Within hours of Superstorm Sandy slamming the East Coast two years ago, Americans opened their wallets to help — donating millions to the first charity that came to mind: the American Red Cross.

President Obama, like most elected officials and celebrities, vouched for the organization, encouraging people to give.

In the months after the disaster, the Red Cross touted its success in delivering food, clothes and shelter to tens of thousands of people left homeless by the storm. Gail McGovern, the Red Cross president and CEO, told NBC News two weeks after the storm: "I think that we are near flawless so far in this operation."

The truth, however, is different.

The venerable charity's track record in dealing with the megastorm is now being challenged by an unusual cadre of critics — its own employees and records.

Multiple internal documents obtained by NPR and ProPublica along with interviews with top Red Cross officials reveal an organization that struggled to meet the basic needs of victims in the first weeks after the storm. Thedocuments and interviews also depict an organization so consumed with public relations that it hindered the charity's ability to provide disaster services.

In an interview, the Red Cross officials stood behind their work overall, especially during Sandy.

"I'm very proud of the services we provided," says Trevor Riggen, a vice president at the Red Cross. "I think the volume of services and the speed at which we provided it speaks to the quality of service of the volunteers and staff on the ground. I think there are details both in the documents you have and other documents you haven't seen that help us learn from our processes."

Riggen says the Red Cross served 17 million meals, provided millions of supplies and housed tens of thousands of people in its shelters. He says the organization would never put public affairs over the needs of clients in that storm or any other.

"I don't believe that's the way our leadership has used resources on the ground or that that was a driving factor in their decisions," he says.

Among NPR and ProPublica's findings:

* The Red Cross national headquarters in Washington "diverted assets for public relations purposes." A former Red Cross official managing the Sandy effort says 40 percent of available trucks were assigned to serve as backdrops for news conferences.

* Distribution of relief was "politically driven instead of [Red Cross] planned."

* Food waste was "excessive," due to factors including inexperienced staff, poor communication and "political pressures."

* In one shelter, "sex offenders were placed in a special area off of dorm, but they weren't there, they were all over, including playing in children's area," according to a confidential "lessons learned" memo from the Red Cross.

* "We didn't have the kind of sophistication needed for this size job," concluded one senior Red Cross official, describing the agency's logistics operations in notes from an after-action report five weeks after the storm. Added another official: "Multiple systems failed."

* Relief organizers were ordered to produce 200,000 additional meals one day — to drive up numbers. They did it at extraordinary cost, even though there was no one to deliver them to and most went to waste.

* "It was just clear to me that they weren't interested in doing mass care; they were interested in the illusion of mass care," says Richard Rieckenberg, who helped lead the Red Cross' response to Sandy and Hurricane Isaac.

* It wasn't just Sandy. When Isaac hit Mississippi and Louisiana earlier in 2012, Rieckenberg says: "We didn't have food in the shelters, we didn't have cots, we didn't have blankets in the shelters, which to me was incredible because we saw this hurricane coming a long way away."

* Also during Isaac, one Red Cross official had 80 trucks drive around empty or largely empty "just to be seen," as one of the drivers recalls.

* "Our experience with the Red Cross is they're a little late to the game," says Police Lt. Matthew Tiedemann, the emergency management coordinator for Bergen County, N.J., who says the Red Cross failed to provide volunteers and resources to open shelters after Sandy. "The reality set in that I was in the sheltering business. It was pretty time-consuming, considering I was putting together cots when I should have been managing an emergency," he says.

http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/10/29/47727/red-cross-diverted-assets-during-storms-aftermath/

Avatar
easytapper
Rancher
Members
Forum Posts: 2149
Member Since:
19 Feb ’12
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
2
31 Oct ’14 - 3:36 pm
sp_Permalink sp_Print

I lost faith in the Red Cross after 9/11.  Only a portion of donations actually made it to victims/victims' families.

He says the organization would never put public affairs over the needs of clients in that storm or any other.

I think that speaks volumes right there.  Clients??  Referring to disaster victims as "clients" doesn't give me the warm, fuzzies.

Avatar
K
Admin
Forum Posts: 31782
Member Since:
15 Feb ’12
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
3
1 Nov ’14 - 9:12 am
sp_Permalink sp_Print

yeah, me neither

Avatar
K
Admin
Forum Posts: 31782
Member Since:
15 Feb ’12
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
4
3 Nov ’14 - 7:57 am
sp_Permalink sp_Print
Avatar
K
Admin
Forum Posts: 31782
Member Since:
15 Feb ’12
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
5
14 Nov ’14 - 9:17 am
sp_Permalink sp_Print

well, that's not a good sign

Internal Survey Shows the Red Cross’ Own Employees Doubt the Charity’s Ethics

 

A survey of American Red Cross employees shows a crisis of trust in the charity's leadership and deep internal doubts about the Red Cross' commitment to ethical conduct.

A summary of the survey results, obtained by ProPublica and NPR, was released internally in September. The survey was completed by a bit more than half of the Red Cross' roughly 25,000 employees.

 

In response to the statement, "I trust the senior leadership of the American Red Cross," just 39 percent responded favorably.

In response to the statement, "The American Red Cross shows a commitment to ethical business decisions and conduct," 61 percent responded favorably. That means about 4 in 10 respondents doubt the ethics of the venerable charity.

"Candidly, the results could have been stronger," Chief Executive Gail McGovern acknowledged in an email to employees. She also called the Red Cross' score on ethics "very high" and identified ethics as one of "our strengths."

During McGovern's six-year tenure, the charity has faced periodic budget deficits and is in the midst of the latest in a series of layoffs. The Red Cross has seen shrinking revenue from its blood business and rising pension costs. In the last year, the charity's fundraising efforts have dwindled without a large national disaster to help bring in donations. The charity finished its last fiscal year with a $70 million deficit and 1,200 workers are expected to lose their jobs over the next year.

Also, ProPublica and NPR reported last month that officials who helped lead the charity's response to Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Isaac believed they were undermined by senior leadership. Resources were diverted for public relations purposes by national headquarters, hurting the relief efforts. Internal assessments concluded the charity wasn't prepared to effectively respond to a large storm.

Current and former officials said the Red Cross' relief efforts also suffered from attrition in its ranks of experienced volunteer disaster responders, many driven away by a series of reorganizations by McGovern, who has moved to centralize decision-making.

The employee survey, which was conducted by IBM, notes that other companies scored better on the questions about trust. About 20 percent of respondents at other companies expressed concern about their organization's ethics, compared with nearly 40 percent for the Red Cross survey.

Asked about the survey, Red Cross spokeswoman Suzy DeFrancis said it was the first of its kind for the charity.

"It is regrettable that you are taking work that we are doing to improve employee engagement and using it to criticize us," DeFrancis wrote in an email. DeFrancis' declined to comment on McGovern's characterization of the survey.

A screenshot of a detail from the Red Cross employee survey.

The survey suggests that the layoffs and reorganization have taken their toll on the morale of the Red Cross' paid staff. Just 35 percent said they "feel supported during organizational change" at the charity.

The survey also shows that employees are proud to be associated with the Red Cross itself, apart from the current leadership: 83 percent of respondents said they were proud to work at the charity.

But most of the survey respondents do not believe the Red Cross has a bright future.

In response to the statement, "The senior leadership of the American Red Cross has communicated a vision of the future that motivates me," 39 percent responded favorably. That compares with an average 61 percent of respondents from other companies in response to the same question.

And just 42 percent responded favorably to the statement, "I believe the American Red Cross has an outstanding future."

http://www.propublic.....tys-ethics

Forum Timezone: America/New_York

Most Users Ever Online: 698

Currently Online:
35 Guest(s)

Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)

Top Posters:

easytapper: 2149

DangerDuke: 2030

groinkick: 1667

PorkChopsMmm: 1515

Gravel Road: 1455

Newest Members:

houstongoddard8

cyrusavalos0042

eleanoreirish1

evangeline31n

staceyd61140321

Forum Stats:

Groups: 1

Forums: 12

Topics: 11477

Posts: 58671

 

Member Stats:

Guest Posters: 2

Members: 3343

Moderators: 0

Admins: 1

Administrators: K