Texas city councilman tells residents not to donate to Red Cross

"They are the most inept unorganized organization I've ever experienced," he said. Click through the following slides to see aerial images of Harvey's destruction. less Houston City Council Member Dave Martin, left, urged citizens at a Wednesday council meeting not to donate money to the American Red Cross. "They are the most inept unorganized organization I've ever ... more Houston City Council Member Dave Martin, left, urged citizens at a Wednesday council meeting not to donate money to the American Red Cross. Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Staff Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez, Staff Image 1 of / 69 Caption Close Texas city councilman tells residents not to donate to Red Cross 1 / 69 Back to Gallery

Houston City Councilman Dave Martin, who represents hard-hit Kingwood, had a message for the public about the American Red Cross.

"I beg you not to send them a penny," he said at Wednesday's council meeting. "They are the most inept unorganized organization I've ever experienced."

In part of a broader rant that also roped in a perceived lack of assistance from his native New Orleans ("Send me your darn trucks, Mitch," he said, a plea for the Big Easy's mayor, Mitch Landrieu, to send waste trucks westward to haul off storm debris), Martin said local folks opened shelters and gathered water and supplies to help his northeastern suburb's evacuees.

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"Don't waste your money," said Martin. "Give it to another cause."

When Martin had finished, his neighbor at the horseshoe, Councilman Dwight Boykins grinned and waved a paper at him, as if to cool his colleague down.

A map of Red Cross shelters does list a facility at CrossWays Community Church on Russell Palmer Road in the Kingwood area.

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Martin is not the only public official to go after the Red Cross' response to Harvey.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett has said he asked local nonprofit to set up a shelter at NRG Park in large part because he did not trust the Red Cross to do so.

"The Red Cross could not have done this. They wouldn't have had the wherewithal to do it," Emmett said. "Don't get me wrong, they're out there on the front lines, but I had already seen the difficulty and we needed to get this set up quickly."

READ ALSO: Before and after photos show Hurricane Harvey's damage along the Texas coast

The organization also has been faulted for failing to ensure supplies reached area shelters quickly enough. By sunrise Sunday, when much of the Houston area awoke under water, one of the city's two Red Cross shelters could not accept evacuees due to high water and the other had only 200 cots for what turned out to be more than 2,000 people. Cots did not arrive to the George R. Brown Convention Center downtown until after dark Sunday, and shortages there persisted for days.

A Red Cross spokeswoman defended the nonprofit in a statement Thursday.

"We had all of our shelters on standby the night before Hurricane Harvey blew in, we had all our supplies ready and waiting to go," spokeswoman MaryJane Mudd said. "In some cases the floodwaters made it a little hard to get those supplies from where they were stationed into the shelters for a short while. We've had 1,500 people on the ground, we've served over 700,000 meals and snacks, we've sheltered 40,000 people. I know the plan was there. The process has worked very well."

The nonprofit previously had said the widespread flooding caused by Harvey made it difficult to deliver additional supplies.

"Often, weather events come, hit hard, and leave quickly," Mudd said in an email last week. "Hurricane Harvey came and hovered over the city very hard for an extended time, making it difficult for our pre-arranged, available shelter items to get to some locations."