The Washington Post suggested that it is "donor fatigue" that has left the coverage of the Guatemalan flood/mudslides disaster this week out of the newspaper and off the TV.
Even the heavily covered Pakistan earthquakes have not generated much of an outpouring of charity. Donations for the latest disasters are coming in slowly.
Several news organizations are weighing in on the charity fatigue story.
An Associated Press story said:
Atlanta-based CARE said Wednesday its online quake donations so far have been roughly $200,000, compared to $1.5 million in online gifts at the same stage after the tsunami.
"The fact that the tsunami struck a tourist region, and happened right after Christmas, played a role in terms of the generosity," said the World Food Programme's U.S.-based spokesman, Trevor Rowe. "We haven't witnessed that yet with the earthquake. Not at all. We need all the help we can get."
The earthquake struck Saturday as most U.S. relief organizations were -- and are -- still seeking donations to cope with the aftermath of Katrina, the most disruptive natural disaster in American history.
Already, Americans have donated more than $1.7 billion for hurricane relief, on the heels of $1.3 billion they donated in response to the tsunami -- a record for an overseas disaster.
"The past 12 months have been shocking in terms of the number of tragic natural disasters, and the American public has been incredibly generous in responding," said Debra Neuman, a vice president of CARE.
Guatemala Resources
One week after the floods began, The National Association of Hispanic Journalists posted a resource page on their Web site for anybody who (still) cares about the tragedy that is (still) growing in Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador.
"Survivor: Guatemala," the fake reality show on CBS, mentioned the disaster last night. The network did not cancel its scheduled episode, which included torrential rain as part of the plot line, but it did air a public service announcement at the end of the program, directing viewers to the CBS homepage for information about how to donate to one of the relief organizations helping the region. But when you go to the section of the CBS.com Web site that the roughly 15-second PSA referred to, you will see that the "Survivor: Guatemala" charity page recommends that people give to the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals as one way to help the people of Guatemala. The site also includes FEMA tips on giving. Clearly, CBS has Hurricane Stan confused with Hurricane Katrina.
It is likely that anybody who saw the PSA had no idea what it was referring to. Except for Spanish-language TV and newspapers and The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, little has been reported about the more than 650 dead (Hoy reports more than 2,000 dead), more than 1,000 missing or more than 100,000 homeless Guatemalans and Mexicans washed out of their homes by floods and mudslides.
The Miami Herald ran an editorial Thursday saying the story had been forgotten, but even the Herald hasn't run a front-page mention since Tuesday. El Nuevo Herald fronted the story Sunday.
Thank goodness the BBC still sees Central America as newsworthy.
Is there a story still to be told? Yes. A Mercy Corps relief worker said,
"In short, the storm may have effectively unraveled many of the development gains made over the last 15 years for almost one-third of the country."
UNICEF says,
"An estimated three million people -- nearly half of the country's population -- were affected by the flooding and mudslides."
Mercy Corps reported yesterday:
"The death toll is expected to rise dramatically," says Graham Craft, a Mercy Corps Relief Worker in Guatemala. Craft notes that bridge washouts and roads buried by landslides have prevented relief agencies from reaching many affected areas.
135 New Charities Pop Up
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports:
The Internal Revenue Service has received at least 135 requests from organizations seeking tax-exempt status so they can provide services to the victims of the hurricanes. But many lawyers, scholars and nonprofit officials say creating new organizations wastes time and resources while people who have no experience providing services learn to operate such groups. Founders of the new groups, however, say existing organizations cannot provide all the aid that is needed. Read this article free.
Hefty Corpses Cost Big Bucks
Here is a story I have not seen before. The Des Moines Register reports that the county coroner has had to hire outside help to move the bodies of obese people who have died. About every other week -- 30 times a year -- the medical examiner's team is moving 300-plus-pound bodies. It's not easy to do. The story said:
Obesity's costs now reach to the grave.
Polk County's medical examiner has received permission to hire a private company when corpses are too hefty to move.
Dr. Gregory Schmunk said 300-pound bodies have become common, and he needs extra hands just to get some of them to the autopsy table.
Iowa ranks 20th in the nation for its proportion of obese adults, at 23.4 percent. Experts say everyone pays for the problem through higher health-care costs. Now add $250 to the cost.
That's what Schmunk's office will pay Seely Funeral Services Inc. of Urbandale to help move bodies when it falls behind or the subjects are too large.
"The times we need help with transportation are on those days when we have to do multiple runs or when we have an extremely heavy person, which isn't uncommon anymore," said Schmunk, who conducts more than 300 autopsies per year, from murder victims to people who die at home without a doctor.
One of his employees recently strained an arm tendon and was put on limited duty for nearly a month when he tried to move an obese person's corpse.
Schmunk estimates he will call on Seely about 30 times a year.
Back in July 2002, I reported to you here on Al's Morning Meeting that hospitals and EMTs were struggling with how to transport big patients. EMTs were buying heavy-duty stretchers. Hospitals were hiring "lift teams" and configuring special furniture, bathrooms and showers for large patients.
Insulation Business Booked Up
Al's Morning Meeting reader Rob Davidek, assistant news director at WWJ-AM (Detroit) tells me that the insulation contractors his newsroom talked to say they are booked up for the next four months.
People are rushing to do anything they can to lower their winter heating bills. I bet the home-improvement stores will be busy this weekend. The Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot also said that for some insulation businesses, this week's announcements about heating bills doubling also doubled the calls inquiring about insulation.
Disaster Mortgage Insurance
My friend, Consumer Reporter Victoria Lim at WFLA-TV in Tampa, found an interesting and timely story about something called "disaster mortgage protection (DMP) insurance." If you have not heard of such a thing, you are not alone.
Victoria writes:
DMP kicks in after flood, wind, fire or other perils destroy your home. It pays for up to two years of mortgage payments.
Homeowners [or flood] insurance can cover repairs, possessions and loss of use (expenses incurred if you have to live somewhere else while your home is uninhabitable, such as hotel stays and meals). But it doesn't cover mortgage payments, which you still have to make even if you can't live in your home.
"If you look at the disasters of 2004 in Florida that occurred in our summer months, and what recently occurred with Katrina ... in some cases, the businesses they work for are no longer there. Who's going to pay for their mortgage? DMP protects them in that situation," said Dan Jiles, managing director of AAA Auto Club South Insurance Agency.
AAA Auto Club South Insurance Agency is the only one I know of that sells these types of policies. It's so new that when I asked the Professional Insurance Agents of Florida for more details, none of its members knew about it.
Victoria strongly urges her viewers to be sure that before they pay for such protection, they check out the agent to be sure they are licensed. Also, she found, some policies appear to demand that repairs begin on a damaged property within 90 days of the damage, but often after a large-scale storm, you cannot even get an appointment with a contractor within 90 days. So, Victoria says, ask about under what circumstances extensions are granted.
Wal-Mart Getting Frisky
Nowhere have sales for frisky new products such as massage oils been higher than -- of all places -- Wal-Mart. It turns out sales go up around Valentine's Day, the Fourth of July and Memorial Day. AdAge takes a look around the store aisles
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Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible.
