Contributors might seriously consider an alternative to the Red Cross, such as
the Salvation Army. Memories are apparently short, but it took protests after 911 to force the Red Cross to release all the money they had raised following that tragedy. And that wasn't the first time the Red Cross
held back money for its own future development and other projects from the funds raised after a major disaster.
FYI although some charities discourage it, you should be able to specify what you want your donation used for. One reason I recommended the SA is that they have put up special forms for hurricane Katrina relief and marked it as the default option for donations.