7B
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
Red Cross gets money and criticism after disasters
early now to outline long-term
plans for the Harvey and Irma
donations, but that issue will
be broached in a one-month-
later report, she said.
In Houston, more than 50
groups, local and national, are
raising money for recovery
from Harvey. The distrust of
established organizations like
the Red Cross has driven many
donors to new initiatives.
Notably, Houston Texans star
J.J. Watt has raised more than
$30 million for his foundation,
largely through appeals on his
social media accounts.
Combined
donations of
$300 million
By DAVID CRARY
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Con-
fronted with back-to-back
major hurricanes, the Ameri-
can Red Cross has received a
huge outpouring of financial
support — and a simultaneous
barrage of criticism based on
its struggles to respond to sev-
eral past disasters.
To date, combined dona-
tions to the Red Cross for hur-
ricanes Harvey and Irma have
topped $300 million. For-
mer President Barack Obama
tweeted a link to a Red Cross
fundraising site. Many pro
sports teams, celebrities and
major corporations have
announced large donations.
Yet even in the early stages
of the response to Harvey in
Texas, a NoRedCross hashtag
circulated widely on Twit-
ter. Some prominent journal-
ists wrote articles suggesting
that people should not donate
to the organization. The New
York Times, in an editorial,
urged prospective donors to be
skeptical.
“Its record on large-scale
operations is spotty,” said
the editorial, asserting that
“there has been less account-
ability than Americans might
expect emanating from its
grand marble headquarters in
Washington.”
The criticism has been
stinging to Red Cross volun-
teers, many of whom have
taken to social media to rebut
the negative commentary.
“I worry that our volunteers
need to feel appreciated,” Red
Cross President Gail McGov-
ern said in a telephone inter-
view. “After 12-hour shifts,
they come back to their hotel
really exhausted. They don’t
want to read this stuff.”
Some local officials in
Texas and Florida have com-
plained about glitches in the
Red Cross response to Harvey
and Irma, while others have
expressed thanks. But much of
101 Legal Notices
Local fund
AP Photo/LM Otero
Evacuees escaping the floodwaters from Harvey rest at a Red Cross shelter set up in the George R. Brown Convention
Center in Houston, Texas, in August. After confronting back-to-back major hurricanes, the American Red Cross has
received a huge outpouring of financial support — and a simultaneous barrage of criticism.
the current mistrust of the Red
Cross arises from the after-
math of other major disasters
over the past 16 years.
Terror attacks
that did not deter some critics
from using social media as the
new hurricanes arrived to post
Haiti-related headlines like
this: “How Red Cross Raised
Half a Billion Dollars and
Built Only Six Homes.”
“People are repeating and
retweeting this stuff instead of
taking time to research,” said
McGovern, a former profes-
sor of marketing at Harvard
who took over as Red Cross
president in 2008 after years of
rapid leadership turnover.
McGovern said she took
solace in evidence of con-
tinued public support — the
strong flow of donations and
the signing up of about 40,000
new volunteers during the
hurricanes. The organization
ran scores of emergency shel-
ters in Texas and the South-
east and says it already has
provided more than $45 mil-
lion in financial assistance
to more than 100,000 hurri-
cane-stricken households in
Texas.
After the 2001 terror
attacks, the Red Cross irked
many donors by earmarking
some 9/11 gifts for unrelated
purposes, including future
needs. It was widely criticized
for its response to Hurricane
Katrina in 2005, and afterward
acknowledged problems that
included overwhelmed vol-
unteers, inadequate anti-fraud
measures and too few strong
partnerships with local chari-
ties and civic groups.
More recently, investiga-
tive reporting by Pro Publica
and National Public Radio
made the case that the Red
Cross responses to the Haiti
earthquake in 2010 and Super-
storm Sandy in 2012 were
flawed in multiple ways. One
key allegation was that the Red
Cross failed to adequately doc-
ument how it was spending the
$488 million it raised for its
work in Haiti.
Last year, the Red Cross
posted a detailed breakdown
of its spending in Haiti. But
For both Harvey and
Irma, the Red Cross is among
the hurricane-response groups
101 Legal Notices
101 Legal Notices
Finances and
transparency
AB6439
NOTICE OF COUNTY LAND SALE
Pursuant to ORS 275.110 and Resolution and Order of the Clatsop County Board of
Commissioners dated August 23, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 19, 2017,
I shall proceed to sell the properties indicated below at a public auction, in the Judge Guy
Boyington Building, 857 Commercial St., Astoria, Oregon, to the highest and best bidder
in Cash. The sale of property is AS IS and includes all of the right, title and interest, if
any there be, in and to the following described real properties situated in Clatsop County,
Oregon, provided, however, that Clatsop County does not warrant or guarantee the extent
to which it has any title or interest in the properties or to the extent to which the
properties are free from any encumbrances or claims. The Properties to be sold are:
Sale #
17-04
17-05
17-30
17-31
Map & Tax Lot
51010DA00500
51010DA01000
80909CC05000,
5001 & 5100
81021BC01200,
81021CB00400,
500, 600, 1500 &
81021CC00401
General Area
South of Seaside
South of Seaside
29 th & Irving in Astoria
Acres
0.25
0.25
0.70
RMV $ Cash Min. Bid
51,946
2,500 CASH
55,354
3,000 CASH
31,471
20,000 CASH
Warrenton, east of
Juniper and north of 9 th
street.
7.36
143,710
250,000 CASH
SALE TERMS: Cash or Certified Check by 5:00 p.m. on day of sale, except for parcel
17-31, which requires a non-refundable deposit of $25,000 down by 5 P.M. on the day of
sale and balance due in 30 days (October 19, 2017).
Clatsop County shall not warrant or defend the titles of the properties offered for sale to
be free of defects or encumbrances and will not warrant that its foreclosure proceedings
or any other proceeding authorizing sale of these properties to be free of defects and will
only sell and convey such titles, if any, as the County has acquired. Interested bidders are
encouraged to obtain a title report prior to bidding. Conveyance is subject to any
recorded easements to the United States or any agency thereof. The Clatsop County
Board of Commissioners reserves the right to reject any and all bids. A bid packet is
available in the office of the Clatsop County Property Management, 820 Exchange Street,
Suite 230, Astoria, Oregon, weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. For further
information, contact Sirpa Duoos, Property Specialist at (503) 338-3674.
Clatsop County Sheriff
Published: August 25, September 1, 8, 15, 2017
recommended by Charity
Navigator, a watchdog group
that rates charities on their
finances and transparency. On
the Charity Navigator web-
site, several hundred com-
ments about the Red Cross
were posted, including vis-
ceral exchanges between sup-
porters and critics.
Charity Navigator’s presi-
dent, Michael Thatcher, says
the Red Cross “is under pretty
intense scrutiny” and he
hopes the result is improved
accountability.
“It’s a hard job to be
able to ramp up quickly and
deploy volunteer resources
and expert resources at the
drop of a hat,” he said. “Are
they perfect? No. I would
love to see them do better, but
I definitely want them to hang
around.”
Bob Ottenhoff, president
and CEO of the Center for
Disaster Philanthropy, urged
the Red Cross to be as spe-
cific as possible in explain-
ing how emergency dona-
tions will be spent, both short
term and long term.
“Part of why the Red Cross
got in difficulty is they’re rais-
ing money in such large quan-
tities they can’t use it all for
the reasons people gave it,” he
said.
Another source of concern
to some critics is McGovern’s
salary of just over $500,000.
The Red Cross defends it as
being in the normal range
for leaders of major national
nonprofits.
In the wake of various past
controversies, the Govern-
ment Accountability Office
issued a detailed report about
the Red Cross in 2015, rec-
ommending that Congress
establish some sort of feder-
ally overseen process for reg-
ular, independent evaluations
of Red Cross disaster services.
The Red Cross contended that
existing evaluation mecha-
nisms were adequate, and the
GAO’s proposal has not been
implemented.
Congress chartered the Red
Cross in 1900 to play a central
role in responding to domes-
tic and international disasters,
though it does not receive fed-
eral funding for this purpose
on a regular basis.
McGovern says the Red
Cross wants to be as transpar-
ent as possible about its han-
dling of donations. It’s too
The Red Cross remains
dominant, raising more than
$200 million on its own for
Harvey relief. About $40 mil-
lion has gone to a local fund
set up by Houston Mayor
Sylvester Turner and Harris
County’s top official, Judge
Ed Emmett. They openly urge
donors to forgo contributions
to the Red Cross.
Emmett blames the Red
Cross for problems that arose
with setting up and running
the emergency shelters used
by tens of thousands of people
flooded out of their homes.
The major shelter for sev-
eral days was the George R.
Brown Convention Center
in downtown Houston. Orig-
inally setting a capacity of
5,000 people, the Red Cross
ended up with double that
number in three days. It ran
out of cots. Some people slept
on strips of cardboard or the
floor until more cots arrived.
Others said they were not get-
ting enough food.
David Brady, CEO of
the Red Cross for the Texas
Gulf Coast region, said the
group’s volunteers and staff
were doing the best they could
during a chaotic and unprece-
dented storm. Many Red Cross
volunteers slept on cots at the
shelter themselves.
“There are challenges that
we and everyone else faced
during the storm,” Brady said.
“We always look at how we
can serve better.”
Associated Press writer
Nomaan Merchant in Houston
contributed to this report.
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