Hurricane Harvey - How the Red Cross is Spending Your Donations

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San Antonio, Texas.

Red Cross volunteer, Meredith Davis hands out pillows at a shelter in San Antonio.

Meredith Davis decided to volunteer for the Red Cross shortly after Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Texas region. She and her husband recently relocated to San Antonio after her husband retired after serving 20 years in the US Army. Meredith was compelled to volunteer with the Red Cross because she wanted to be somewhere she can help people, so she trained as a shelter volunteer on Saturday, August 26. Just 3 days later she is working at a large shelter in San Antonio which currently is housing over 700 evacuees from all across Texas, from Corpus Christy to Houston. Meredith said, “I’m weepy. I’m grateful. I’m blessed. It’s a part of my personal mission to help people through disaster relief. Photo by Daniel Cima for the American Red Cross.

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August 29, 2017. George R. Brown Convention Center, Red Cross Mega Shelter, Houston, Texas.

Texas Gulf Coast Region board member, Amy Gasea and event based volunteer, Emanuel Castillo, hand out hot meals to shelter residents at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Amy has been a board member since 2014 and is an assigned volunteer to the Disaster Relief Operation. Amy was originally assigned to supporting the operation in the planning function, but jumped in to assist as the Feeding Manager of the GRB Convention Center when a leader was needed. Photo by Daniel Cima for the American Red Cross

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August 29, 2017. George R. Brown Convention Center, Red Cross Mega Shelter, Houston, Texas.

Red Cross volunteer, Rabia Vaid speaks with Yousaf Rizwan as he comforts his six week old daughter, Anaya, six-year old Emaan and eight-year old Zeyan. Yousaf and his family evacuated their Houston home on Thursday, in anticipation of the flood waters of Hurricane Harvey. Photo by Daniel Cima for the American Red Cross

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August 29, 2017. San Antonio, Texas.

Volunteers John Coyle, Linda Lowman, and Juan Pinales serve lunch at a shelter in San Antonio. Linda and Jaun are both residents of San Antonio who wanted to help people affected by Hurricane Harvey in their community. John, is a long time Red Cross volunteer who began his service after Hurricane Katrina. He said, “The Red Cross does an amazing job feeding and sheltering people. No one should have to beg, borrow, or steal to get a meal when there is a storm.” Photo by Chuck Haupt for the American Red Cross

August 31, 2017

The American Red Cross has been truly humbled by the outpouring of public support for those affected by Hurricane Harvey. Working around the clock, the Red Cross is making good use of donations and bringing help where it is needed. Each cot holding a sleeping child, each meal served to a family who is hungry and each blanket a disaster worker wraps around someone wet from the floodwaters is a result of a generous donation. As the storm moves north, flash flood emergencies are in effect throughout the Gulf Coast, and the storm may produce as much as a foot of rain through the end of the week.

Our Response - Shelters, Disaster Workers, Supplies, Food,

Estimates indicate more than 33,800 people sought refuge in more than 240 Red Cross and partner shelters across Texas Wednesday night.

Six shelters are also open in Louisiana with more than 450 people.

More than 2,000 disaster workers are on the ground, and more than 600 are on the way. They are being joined by a group of highly-skilled volunteers from the Mexican Red Cross who will help support shelters, distribute aid and connect with Spanish-speaking disaster survivors to keep them informed about support available to them.

We have shelter supplies for more than 70,000 people, with supplies for an additional 14,000 en route.

Along with our partners, we have served more than 250,000 meals and snacks since the storm began.

We have trailers of kitchen supplies on the ground to support 8 kitchens, each able to produce 10,000 meals a day and 4 more trailers are on the way.

We also have about 130,000 ready-to-eat meals currently on the ground with an additional 25,000 en route.

Along with our partners, we have served more than 250,000 meals and snacks since the storm began.

More than half of our emergency response fleet – 200 Emergency Response Vehicles – have been activated for the operation.

More than 18 million hurricane and flood alerts have been issued through Red Cross mobile apps since August 24, well surpassing the 6 million issued for Superstorm Sandy. The alerts provide shelter locations and real-time information so people can help protect themselves and their loved-ones.

Additional Shelter Information

You can find shelters by visiting redcross.org, downloading the free Red Cross Emergency App or calling 1-800-REDCROSS (1-800-733-2767). The Emergency App is available in app stores by searching for the American Red Cross or going to redcross.org/apps. You can also check with your local officials on where to find a shelter, download the FEMA app or text SHELTER and your zip code to 4FEMA (43362). Monitoring your local media may also help.

Partners Help Us Respond

Massive disasters like Hurricane Harvey create more needs than any one organization can meet on their own. The Red Cross is working very closely with the entire response community – government agencies, other non-profit groups, faith-based organizations, area businesses and others – to coordinate emergency relief efforts and get help to people as quickly as possible. We are working with dozens of disaster partners to support feeding, child care, disaster assessment and other disaster services. Some of the partners we are coordinating with include Americorps NCCC, Church of the Brethren Children’s Disaster Services, Save the Children, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and Islamic Relief USA.

CORPORATIONS HELP The generous donations from members of the Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program (ADGP) and the Disaster Responder Program enable the American Red Cross to prepare communities for disasters big and small, respond whenever and wherever disasters occur and help families during the recovery process.

ADGP $1 Million members are: American Airlines; Anheuser-Busch Foundation; Anthem Foundation; Bank of America; Caterpillar Foundation; The Clorox Company; Costco Wholesale; Delta Air Lines; Disney; Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation; FedEx; General Motors Foundation; Grainger; The Home Depot Foundation; LDS Charities; Lowe's Companies, Inc.; Mazda North American Operations; Microsoft Corp.; Nationwide Foundation; PepsiCo Foundation; State Farm; Target; UPS; VSP Global; Walmart and the Walmart Foundation; and The Wawa Foundation.

ADGP $500,000 members are: Altria Group; American Express; Aon; Boise Paper; Capital One; Cisco Foundation; Citi Foundation; Darden Restaurants, Inc. Foundation; Discover; Edison International; Farmers Insurance; Ford Motor Company; Humble Bundle; John Deere Foundation; Johnson Controls; McDonald’s Corporation; Medtronic Foundation; Meijer; Merck Foundation; Mondelēz International Foundation; Procter & Gamble Company; Reynolds American Foundation; Ryder; Southwest Airlines; Sunoco; TD Ameritrade; The TJX Companies, Inc.; United Airlines; and Wells Fargo.

Disaster Responder Program members are: Adobe; Alcoa; Alliance Data; Astellas USA Foundation; AT&T; AvalonBay Communities, Inc.; AXA; The Ball Foundation; BMW of North America; BNY Mellon; CarMax; Cox Automotive; Duke Energy; Entergy Corporation; Harbor Freight Tools Foundation; Hewlett Packard Enterprise Foundation; HP Foundation; IBM Corporation; IHG Foundation; Ingersoll Rand Foundation; The J.M. Smucker Company; Land O’Lakes, Inc.; Mastercard; Morgan Stanley; Neiman Marcus Group; New Balance Foundation; Northrop Grumman Corporation; Northwestern Mutual and the Northwestern Mutual Foundation; Prudential Foundation; SC Johnson; SERVPRO; Southeastern Grocers Home of BI-LO Harveys Winn Dixie; Standard Textile; Toyota; U-Haul International; United Technologies Corporation; The USAA Foundation; U.S. Bank; and Visa.

We thank everyone for their overwhelming support for people impacted by this catastrophic storm. You can donate online to help people affected by Hurricane Harvey by visiting redcross.org/Harvey or call 1-800-RED CROSS.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media.