The American Red Cross and its partners have given out tarps, tents and other shelter supplies to support 650,000 Haitians in need of shelter following the earthquake. We've made a great deal of progress, but we are gravely concerned about the impact of the upcoming rainy and hurricane seasons on Haiti's estimated 1.3 million homeless.

• Tents and tarps have been given so far to roughly half of the estimated 1.3 million homeless Haitians, and we are on track to get emergency shelter to the rest by May 1.
• The Red Cross and its partners are getting emergency shelter supplies to more than 80,000 people a week on average, but we also recognize that tarps and tents will not afford much protection against heavy rains or hurricane winds.
• No one understands more than we do how dire the circumstances are in Haiti.
• More than 50 American Red Cross disaster specialists are in Haiti as part of a broader and coordinated global network of 600 Red Cross and Red Crescent responders from nearly 40 countries.
• The Red Cross also plans to provide transitional shelters for 100,000 of the most vulnerable people. It has developed shelter designs, some made of timber and others of steel, that are safe, robust and can be moved and extended by families where space and resources allow. Construction of these shelters will move forward in phases as land ownership issues are resolved and debris is removed.
• As part of its preparations for the rainy and hurricane seasons, the American Red Cross has begun working in camps on steps to reduce hazards. These include basic safety measures such as digging ditches for better drainage, teaching the community about the importance of having a plan and a place to meet in case family members get separated; and setting up phone trees for people to either give or get information.

The American Red Cross is allocating an additional $24.4 million today to provide urgently needed emergency and transitional shelter for survivors of Haiti's earthquake, increasing the total amount spent or allocated over the last two months to more than $106.4 million.

• The latest allocation of funds includes $16.1 million for construction of transitional shelters that will be coordinated by the global Red Cross network. An additional $3.7 million will go to Habitat for Humanity to buy emergency shelter materials. While another $4.6 million will support cash grants to 16,000 families so they can buy essential items as part of a program with Haiti's largest microfinance institute, Fonkoze.
• In less than two months, the American Red Cross had already spent $82 million to provide Haitians food, water, emergency medical care as well as emergency shelter supplies including hygiene kits, cooking tools, buckets, blankets, mosquito nets.

No one understands more than we do how dire the circumstances are in Haiti, but it is physically impossible to build enough transitional shelters before the start of hurricane season.

• The Red Cross and other groups cannot start building large numbers of transitional or permanent shelters because there are few plots of open land to build on; land ownership issues remain and there are insufficient amounts of building materials.
• It's important to understand that even if we had starting building transitional shelters the day after the earthquake; we would still not have had enough time to assemble enough shelters for 1.3 million people before the start of the Caribbean hurricane season.
• Massive amounts of debris must be cleared to have the needed plots of land for new housing. According to a recent Washington Post article, U.N. rapid assessment teams estimate that the 245,000 ruined or hopelessly damaged structures in Haiti will produce enough rubble to fill the Louisiana Superdome, from playfield to roof, up to 17 times.

To complement ongoing aid distributions in Port-au-Prince and reach additional families in need, the American Red Cross will provide financial assistance to help an initial 16,000 families purchase and replace essential items over the next six months.

• Among this group are 6,000 host families residing in rural communities, who are now caring for loved ones who fled the disaster zone. They will receive the equivalent of one month's salary to help feed, shelter and clothe their guests.
• Additionally, approximately 10,000 women, who have lost their homes, business or both, will also receive a grant to help meet their families' immediate needs. These female business owners will also have their debt forgiven and access to a new loan through a partnership with Haiti's largest microfinance institute, Fonkoze (pronounced faun-co-zee), which will help restart their businesses, restore their families' source of income and rekindle their sense of dignity and help empower them after losing so much.
• Direct financial assistance and livelihood programs can often meet survivors' needs more rapidly and effectively than distributing goods following an international emergency. It also helps stimulate the local economy and allows the survivors to decide how best to cope with and recover their losses, providing a sense responsibility and empowerment.