Charity: Americans are opening their pocketbooks so fast and so wide in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that donations have already dwarfed the first week's efforts to help victims of last year's Asian tsunami and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
By Tuesday evening, US charities had raised more then $500 million in cash and pledges - more than twice the $239 million donated in the 10 days after 9/11, and more than three times the $163 million raised in the nine days after the tsunami that hit countries along the Indian Ocean last December.
The American Red Cross raised $409 million by Tuesday afternoon - five times the $79 million that came in during the first week after the tsunami, the relief agency said. The Salvation Army had raised $51 million - six times the amount the charity took in for tsunami relief and more than it collected over the last five years combined.
The outpouring of gifts eased concerns of some charity groups, who feared donations might not be so robust because so many Americans had given money earlier this year for tsunami relief. But the agencies remain worried that strains on the economy - including rising gas prices - will hamper the relief effort in the long run. The damage to people and places is so huge, relief workers said,that it will take this week's donations and millions more to ease suffering. They said that despite a record-breaking first week, total donations for Katrina were still a fraction of the amounts raised over months and years for 9/11 and the tsunami. Donations for 9/11 relief are now at $2.2 billion, and US charities have collected nearly $1.3 billion for the tsunami so far, according to a tabulation complied by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
But much of the money represented the efforts of millions of Americans of moderate means: A 7-year-old Chicago girl sold her toys over the weekend, and walked into the offices of the food bank company America's Second Harvest with $11. - (LA Times, Washington Post)