American Red Cross' Bank Account Runs Dry

June 18, 2008 — -- The organization best known for helping people cope with the aftermath of tragedy – the American Red Cross – is in dire need of assistance itself as it pleads with Americans to make donations to its depleted relief fund.

"Right now the balance in our disaster relief fund is sitting close to zero," Laura Howe, a spokesperson for the American Red Cross, told ABCNEWS.com. "We anticipate that the series of tornadoes and floods that we've had since the beginning of April is going to cost our organization about $15 million."

For the first time since Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, the Red Cross may have no choice but to take out loans to cover the cost of relief efforts, Howe said, blaming the shortfall on an atypically high number of disasters across the U.S. this year.

"What's been difficult since [Katrina] is the large number of medium-sized disasters we've had in the last couple of years that have really chipped away at the disaster fund," said Howe. "It's important for people to know that the fund is where we draw from to pay for all of our disaster relief efforts, ranging from an apartment fire in Massachusetts to hurricanes."

While local Red Cross chapters have their own money, if tragedy strikes and the community is unable to meet the need, funds are taken from the national disaster relief fund.

The $15 million the Red Cross hopes to raise will cover the approximately 30 disasters that have occurred in the past two months, said Howe, but will mainly go to funding the relief effort for those affected by the floods in the Midwest.

The floods have claimed more than 20 lives and caused the evacuation of about 40,000 people along the swollen Iowa and Mississippi Rivers.

Howe is concerned that with the approach of the hurricane season, the Red Cross will have no money to draw on.

"We're heading into hurricane season already strapped with the cost of very large relief organizations for tornadoes and flooding," said Howe.