Thursday, September 4, 2008 - Page updated at 01:25 PM

Red Cross pleads for hurricane donations

The American Red Cross is borrowing money to cover its costs from Hurricane Gustav and will probably go deeper into debt as it prepares for three additional storms threatening the United States.

WASHINGTON —

The American Red Cross is borrowing money to cover its costs from Hurricane Gustav and will probably go deeper into debt as it prepares for three additional storms threatening the United States.

Red Cross vice president Joseph Becker said the agency could spend more than $70 million feeding and sheltering victims of Gustav. It has raised only $5 million so far, and donations are trickling in slowly as the public seems to think there wasn't much damage, Becker said at a news conference Thursday on storm preparations.

Becker pleaded for donations, saying Gustav wasn't as big as it could have been but still inflicted major damage along the Gulf Coast.

The agency also borrowed money earlier this year as it spent some $30 million responding to the massive floods in the Midwest.

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