Looks like, in our area at least, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, and some of the hands aren't honest.
Many, many Walmart gift cards were bought in the days after the storm, and people who bought them gave them to various organizations (Red Cross, Salvation Army, United Way, etc.) for distribution. Now it turns out that a lot of the cards are missing in action--no one knows how many there were total, where they went, who has them, how many were given out, etc. Apparently even the folks handing them out weren't keeping any sort of list, because there are known cases of families sending in multiple members to pick them up, or else going in day after day. It has come to the point that some families have received none and others have gotten several each day, while one evacuee famliy was seen at Walmart with big stacks of the cards, buying two televisions. The United Way had cards, but couldn't distribute them because they "didn't have the proper forms." The people in the shelters are finding out much more information about assistance and receiving much more help than those who have been able to stay with friends or find temporary housing. Cards and other assistance comes to the shelters, where it is snapped up, leaving nothing for other evacuees.
It also turns out that, here at least, agencies are helping those who were homeless in N.O. before they are helping people who had some sort of shelter there. Are they not equally homeless now? There are plenty of people who had a roof in N.O. but who have no insurance and were barely making it month to month. My friend's Mom was told by FEMA and the local agency info clearinghouse to "call her insurance agent" and that people on public assistance in N.O. had priority. That doesn't help her find an apartment or a job here in another state, now, does it? This woman and her daughter have had to get the local paper involved to try to expose and sort out what is going on.
I'm not trying to start a flame war about which charities or agencies are or are not doing a good job. I'm sure much of what is going on here is disorganization and a few greedy people, rather than any sort of plot. But you may well want to think about where you give time and money, and try to make sure it is actually going to people who need it, to be given to those people by folks who have their ducks in a row.
Monique in TX