Two-Thirds of Katrina Donations Exhausted

Minnesotans Mike Harrington and Roger Anderson carry supplies from one home to another in East Biloxi, Miss. (By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)

Also, the law that governs federal spending after a disaster strictly limits how much can go to private entities -- places of worships and arts groups, mental health services, youth programs and child-care centers. The desolate fiscal situations in Mississippi and Louisiana leave those states in no position to cover what the feds cannot. Charity officials say their organizations will try to step into that breach.

For weeks after the storm, Americans and their employers poured hundreds of millions of dollars into charities, churches, synagogues and other religious organizations. Thousands of truckloads of supplies were sent to the Gulf Coast.

The speed of the charitable inflow after Katrina topped the torrid pace of donations after the Sept. 11 attacks, when donations hit the $1 billion mark in six weeks and ultimately rose to $2.8 billion, according to Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy.

Donations to Katrina, in contrast, hit $1 billion in three weeks.

Even so, Katrina presents far broader challenges -- simply because the money must be spread over so many more victims.

"Even if we doubled, tripled or quadrupled what we have, we still wouldn't be able to meet the need," said Gary Lundstrom, director of projects for Samaritan's Purse, which is rebuilding homes along the Mississippi coast and in Louisiana's ravaged St. Bernard Parish with much of its $34 million.

Despite the charitable outpouring, some victims feel shortchanged. And there is often a disconnect between the realities of how much has been contributed and the vastness of the need.

Johnnie and Hurley Smith clung to their bedroom skylight to survive Katrina after eight feet of water inundated their home in Biloxi, Miss. They got $1,000 from the Red Cross to use for daily expenses such as lodging and food, and $100 and a new mattress from the Salvation Army. They also ate Salvation Army and Red Cross meals, and their wrecked home was gutted by a church group.

Nevertheless, Johnnie Smith, 57, says she wishes a little more of the billions in donations had come her way.

"I should have been given more assistance," said Smith, a real estate agent who is still unable to work and needs therapy to deal with the trauma of Katrina. (Her husband, Hurley, is retired.) "There was a lot of money donated, and there is still a lot of money being donated."

Some small groups along the coast complain that the big charities are ignoring them.

Saving Our Selves Coalition, a grass-roots recovery group, relies on funds from smaller organizations and individuals.