The Clock's Ticking on Red Cross Overhaul

But McElveen-Hunter said the organization is serious. "This is part of what we have to do and need to do to be more transparent and to be more open," she said.

Even if the next hurricane season belies predictions of bigger and deadlier storms, state emergency officials and Red Cross chapters that were battered last year are braced for even greater demands because they expect Gulf Coast residents to head for shelters in far larger numbers.

Red Cross chapters in hurricane country are scrambling to get ready, keenly aware that June 1, the official start of hurricane season, is bearing down on them.

"I feel like there is a huge clock that just continues to tick," said Kay Wilkins, chief executive of the Southeast Louisiana Red Cross chapter. Its New Orleans headquarters took on five feet of water during Katrina, and 15 staffers' homes were destroyed. Fourteen employees have left, and the chapter has lost 40 percent of its volunteers.

Margaret O'Brien-Molina, communications officer for the Red Cross's southwest service area, which oversees 59 chapters, is even blunter. "I feel like there is a giant bomb ticking."

In recent months, the Red Cross has been meeting with leaders of ethnic and racial communities and announcing initiatives to recruit more minorities and enlist more houses of worship for emergency shelters.

But some organizations are already disillusioned.

"It's disappointing," said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic group. "We need to see more of a commitment than, 'Oh, we can do better.' What steps are they taking?"

Red Cross official Ana Corea responded that, along with new efforts to reach out to Latinos, the organization is readying proposals to include groups such as La Raza in recruitment drives for Hispanic volunteers.

The Rev. Nelson Rivers III, chief operating officer of the NAACP, said he welcomes the charity's efforts to line up more African American churches for shelters and to train NAACP regional conferees in disaster relief.

But ultimately, Rivers said, the NAACP is waiting to see what happens in the next disaster.

"The proof of the pudding will be in the tasting," he said.

Along the Gulf Coast, chapters have started aggressive outreach efforts themselves.

The Central Louisiana chapter, which sheltered more than 14,000 Katrina evacuees, is training church members and staffers to transform churches into shelters, spokesman Kevin Gebhart said. The Archdiocese of Alexandria, La., is already on board, he said.

Beyond those efforts, Red Cross officials say that to improve their hurricane response, they need to rethink their traditional chapter structure and financing, which relies mostly on local donations and the charity's national Disaster Relief Fund.

That system works fairly well for wealthier states, Red Cross officials say. Hurricane-prone Florida and North Carolina, for example, have a combined 65 chapters and annual donations of more than $45 million.

But it hurts states such as Louisiana and Mississippi, which have a total of 24 chapters with less than $6.5 million a year.

Until now, McGuire's focus has been on overhauling the charity's main business: its long-troubled blood services unit, which provides nearly half of the nation's blood supply.

Since he joined the division two years ago as executive vice president, he has reorganized and streamlined the unit, which has been operating under an agreement with the Federal Drug Administration that strictly regulates how the business is run and subjects it to stiff penalties if problems are found.

In December, McGuire was tapped to run the entire organization on an interim basis after chief executive Marsha J. Evans stepped down. Her abrupt departure drew the attention of Congress, which was already unhappy with the Red Cross's performance after Katrina.

The Senate Finance Committee started an investigation and released internal Red Cross documents that revealed embarrassing details about management infighting.

In response to the criticism, the Red Cross will hold a "governance summit" today at its headquarters, bringing in outside experts to review its structure. And it has begun an internal audit that will take a "deep dive" into its operations, said McElveen-Hunter, who was appointed board chairman by President Bush in 2004.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Finance Committee, warned that the Red Cross changes need to be thorough.

"The 'deep dive' review needs to come back with more than just surface-level reforms," Grassley said in an e-mail.