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08.24.2010 Five Years After Katrina

Five years after a hurricane season that wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast, the American Red Cross released “Bringing Help, Bringing Hope,” a report that details the Red Cross response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and the ensuing years of recovery for the survivors. image

“Five years ago, the American public responded to Katrina with unprecedented generosity,” said Russ Paulsen, executive director of the Hurricane Recovery Program at the Red Cross. “Looking back, I think they can be proud of what their contributions accomplished.”

Local response

More than 8,000 Gulf Coast households evacuated to North Carolina from Hurricane Katrina. The Carolina Piedmont Region of the American Red Cross, headquartered in Charlotte, helped lead a response effort in our community.

For 16 days, the Greater Carolinas Chapter sheltered 1,041 evacuees in the former Charlotte Coliseum and provided meals for 27,000 people and financial assistance to 1,400 families. The chapter sent nearly 350 volunteers to the Coast to help with relief efforts.

The chapter, which serves Mecklenburg and Iredell communities, raised nearly $6.5 million for Red Cross disaster relief after Katrina.

Davey Crockett, of Charlotte, started volunteering with the Red Cross during Katrina. He deployed to the Gulf Coast for three weeks working with disaster assessment teams. “I felt I needed to do something, and the work I saw the Red Cross do there is the reason I’m still with the Red Cross.”

Elsewhere around the Carolina Piedmont Region:


  • The Burke County Chapter deployed nearly a dozen volunteers to help along the Gulf and raised more than $25,000.
  • The Cabarrus County Chapter sent 35 volunteers to the Gulf Coast and raised nearly $800,000 for the responses to Katrina and other hurricanes during that timeframe. The chapter also assisted 102 families who had sought refuge in the area and formed a housing coalition that worked through the spring of 2006 in support of those families.
  • The Catawba Valley Chapter assisted 101 families, deployed more than 100 volunteers and raised more than $600,000 for relief efforts.
  • The Cleveland County Chapter deployed volunteers to the Gulf and helped find temporary shelter for 45 families displaced by the hurricane.
  • The Elizabeth H. Dole Chapter raised more than $250,000 for relief efforts and deployed volunteers to the Gulf.
  • The Gaston County Chapter deployed 16 trained volunteers to assist with the relief efforts on the Gulf Coast and trained 51 new volunteers in Red Cross disaster response.  The chapter also assisted 76 families and raised more than nearly $415,000 for relief and recovery efforts.
  • The Lincoln County Chapter assisted 21 families displaced by the hurricane, deployed six volunteers and raised more than $104,000 for relief efforts.
  • The Stanly County Chapter deployed 11 volunteers to the Gulf, raised nearly $250,000 for relief efforts and assisted 14 families displaced by the hurricane.
  • The Union County Chapter helped 69 families displaced by the hurricane and raised nearly $250,000 for relief efforts. The chapter also deployed 30 volunteers to the Gulf and trained 90 new disaster volunteers.


National response

The Red Cross gave 1.4 million families — approximately 4.5 million people — emergency financial assistance in response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, which was 19 times more than the previous record. Donors gave the organization a total of $2.2 billion for people affected by the storms.

“Never before had the Red Cross served so many people after a disaster, and never before had so many people come forward to help,” said Paulsen. “But we learned that there are some disasters that are so big that no agency—government or nonprofit—can do it all. We learned that everyone needs to play a part.”

One critical lesson was that the Red Cross needed to increase its capacity to respond and build partnerships with other organizations that can help in large events. As a result, the Red Cross established a nationwide warehouse system and pre-positioned more than two Katrinas’ worth of disaster relief supplies in warehouses—enough to support 350,000 shelter residents. It also enhanced local, state and national-level planning efforts to plan for how it would respond to large-scale disasters and created new partnerships with national, state and local groups to help ensure that all segments of the community are served after a disaster.

In the past five years, the Red Cross expanded the number of trained disaster volunteers from 25,000 to nearly 95,000, including nearly 50,000 available to travel to disasters around the country. The organization also created tools for the public to use during a disaster, including a National Shelter System accessible online, and a “Safe and Well” website to reconnect families during disasters, including through social media. 

“The hurricanes of 2005 tested us all,” said Paulsen. “Although we’re on better footing than we were five years ago, every individual and community has to be on board in order for our country to be more disaster-ready. There is much more that we as a nation can do. Everyone—government, businesses, non-profits and the faith community—needs to work together to have better prepared communities,” said Paulsen. 

The report, “Bringing Help, Bringing Hope: The American Red Cross Response to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma,” is available at http://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/pdf/corppubs/Katrina5Year.pdf.