A journalist with extensive experience in disaster zones questions the American Red Cross response to Superstorm Sandy, the group’s status as the go-to aid group for the federal government, and by far the biggest recipient of relief donations, in a piece in Gawker.

Jonathan M. Katz, whose 3 1/2 years in Haiti provide the basis for a forthcoming book on the post-earthquake aid effort there, writes that the Red Cross has offered little hard data on what donations are paying for in neighborhoods hard hit by Superstorm Sandy and calls the charity “the Coca-Cola of disaster relief, a brand so well known and liked that it stands in for all others of its category.”