FEMA News: Cash Sought To Help Hurricane Victims, Volunteers Should Not Self-Dispatch

Release Date: August 29, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Voluntary organizations are seeking cash donations to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina in Gulf Coast states,
according to Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response.
But, volunteers should not report directly to the affected areas unless directed by a voluntary agency.

"Cash donations are especially helpful to victims," Brown said. "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."

Volunteer agencies provide a wide variety of services after disasters, such as clean up, childcare, housing repair, crisis counseling, sheltering and food.

"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."