Aid Workers: Cash Still Best Donation

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For many Americans, donating money to help victims of Hurricane Katrina just isn't enough. Clothing, toys, blankets are also pouring in to post offices, shelters. Those donations can be good and bad news for relief efforts. NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports.

BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY reporting:

Jack Martin owns a tattoo and body-piercing shop in Lake Elsinore, California. Last week, as he was watching the story unfold on TV, he turned to his friend. Right then, they decided to do something. They began collecting clothing, shoes and other items.

Mr. JACK MARTIN (Lake Elsinore, California): And it just started to snowball. It just went crazy. In a matter of two or three days, we managed to get over a hundred tons of goods to drop off.

HAGERTY: We caught up with Martin on the interstate somewhere in Arizona. He was leading a convoy of two tractor trailers, a 14-foot moving truck and four pickup trucks hauling trailers. His destination: the Houston Astrodome.

Mr. MARTIN: I have mostly clothes, sleeping bags, blankets, shoes. We tried to avoid the toys and everything else so it wouldn't cause fights 'cause I can't provide enough of 'em. I literally could probably clothe everybody in there twice, maybe even three times with decent clothing.

HAGERTY: Martin says he couldn't get through to FEMA or the Red Cross to tell them he was coming, but he's lucky. Unlike many of the shelters, the Astrodome has a donation center where volunteers sort through the things that come in. Janna Zainer(ph), an American Red Cross staffer there, says supply doesn't always equal demand.

Ms. JANNA ZAINER (American Red Cross Staffer): I was down last night on the main floor at the Astrodome. And I was talking to one of the families and they were joking around about the fact that they have baby clothes to last them until their children are grown up. And sure enough, underneath one of their cots, they just had piles and piles of baby clothes, which is good 'cause they had three little bitty ones with them.

HAGERTY: The problem with in-kind donations, she says, is that one shelter can get too much while others are scrambling.

Ms. ZAINER: Right now, as far as I know, the Astrodome has plenty of clothing in it, but we're opening shelters all over the country right now. So a lot of things are being shipped down here when other communities may end up needing goods locally.

HAGERTY: Which is why the Red Cross and other groups prefer cash donations, says Brenda Phillips. Phillips specializes in emergency management at Oklahoma State University. She says the instinct to do something may not be the best one.

Ms. BRENDA PHILLIPS (Oklahoma State University): After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, people just started dumping off piles of clothing at the local library or in front of Blockbuster Video and homes--should remember that one. And it rained almost every single day. The clothes rotted almost immediately. The military had to come in and pick up things with bulldozers to get rid of them.

HAGERTY: Phillips says send money.

Ms. PHILLIPS: You don't need a warehouse for it. You don't need personnel to sort it. You can move money around electronically. If you need it at the Astrodome, you can use it there. If you need it in the shelters that are going to Michigan and Oklahoma, it can go there in an instant.

HAGERTY: Major Dalton Cunningham, the Salvation Army's divisional commander for the region, says there are logistical problems, too. Trucks may not be able to get through, especially in flooded areas. And he says local relief workers know exactly what's needed. But then again, there's a little serendipity when it comes to spontaneous donations, like the shipment that arrived last week in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Major DALTON CUNNINGHAM (Salvation Army): We got a tractor trailer load of iceberg lettuce early on, and we had no refrigeration. Fortunately, we found a group that was making salads, but we had to move pretty quickly to figure out a way to use that so that we didn't lose the lettuce.

HAGERTY: But, he says, they're not always so lucky. Barbara Bradley Hagerty, NPR News.

RENEE MONTAGNE (Host): This is NPR News.

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