The Red Cross does try, and does a fairly good job with what they have, in fact, their paid staff does a great job on the local level (I think there is a tad of feather bedding/politics up at the National - well, duh)

I did the whole "shelter Managaers" series, and was on call this weekend in case NYC opened a shelter, but thank G-- we didn't have to. GNYARC does have one strange issue with opening shelters - because of the way they run day to day, it's EXTREMELY rare they actually open a shelter. Reception Centers, yes, shelters, nope. That's because there are SO many hotels in NYC that the ARC has agreements with that they usually intake the clients, and pass them off to a hotel with a voucher for food, clothes, etc. Last two shelters ops I was on, they opened 3 or 5 shelters. Between the 8 shelters, on 2 operations, the TOTAL client count was .... ONE

I do have some funny stories - like the blackout, and the fact that someone forgot to refuel the ERV before they put it away, and trying to find a place to get 10-20 gallons of diesel during a blackout... (my pickup took the place of the ERV while they went to refuel - got a bunch of goodies from NYPD because of that - I've been told it's policy that if you use flares at a scene that the PD will replace them)