Red Cross needs money

[freebirdmac]

I know they have a lot of work to do in cleaning up their own house, but they consistently do a lot of good.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26663043/
http://www.redcross.org/

[partsRheavy]

Saw a Red Cross Blood Svcs. van filling up at a (crowded) gas station today.

I'm in the Carolinas very far from the "Ike" strike zone, but some gas stations around here are out of gas. A grocery store gas station apparently ran out this morning and a Shell was dribbling out its last little bit tonight. BP and Citgo stations had gas. The grocery store told customers they're not getting gas deliveries.

I dunno. Maybe the gas is going to the evacuation routes around HOU. I filled up before Gustav, too, but I didn't see stations run out.

It seems that Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana managed the Gustav situation/evacuation really well. People really evacuated and got out of there. Gustav was a cat. 4 and cat. 3 until he actually came in at cat. 2. Bobby Jindal was on top of things really well with Gustav - lots of press conferences, etc.

I hope Texas manages their situation as well as Louisiana dealt with Gustav this time around so that the Red Cross doesn't have a huge crisis like happened with Katrina.

I think that organizations like the Red Cross work most effectively in small-scale disasters (e.g. tornados) or in situations where everyone else (citizens, government) also actively does their part.

What I mean is that citizens help out by evacuating themselves and that government helps out by pre-positioning supplies and helping elderly/infirm/no transportation to evacuate, as was done this year with Gustav (but not Katrina in '05).