Report faults Red Cross response to Isaac, Sandy

NEW YORK (AP) – A report from the investigative journalism nonprofit ProPublica and NPR says the American Red Cross mishandled its responses to Hurricane Isaac and Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

The story (http://bit.ly/1vgh69o) was published Wednesday on the second anniversary of Sandy. It says the Red Cross was often more focused on public relations than on helping storm victims.

It cites internal documents and interviews with current and former Red Cross staffers.

The report says the organization kept hundreds of volunteers in Tampa, Florida, long after it became clear that Isaac would bypass the city.

It also charges that during Sandy, emergency vehicles were taken away from relief workers and assigned to serve as backdrops for news conferences, angering disaster responders.

Red Cross officials defended the group’s response to the two storms