The Home Depot Foundation Donates $1 Million to Hurricane Ike Recovery and Rebuilding Efforts

PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Home Depot(R) Foundation, the philanthropic arm of The Home Depot, today announced the donation of $1 million to the recovery and rebuilding efforts in response to Hurricane Ike. The funding will be used for three programs:

-- $200,000 to the American Red Cross for immediate recovery aid for Houston and the communities along the Gulf coast of Texas.

-- $100,000 in clean-up materials for locally organized, community volunteer efforts, including the activation of Team Depot, the Company's associate volunteer program.

-- $700,000 to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) for rebuilding efforts in communities affected by Hurricane Ike.

Separately, The Homer Fund, a charity for The Home Depot associates in need of emergency financial assistance, has begun helping associates and their families affected by Hurricane Ike. Volunteers from the Company activated The Homer Fund call center more than two weeks ago to assist associates with their urgent needs of safe housing and other daily essentials during this hurricane season. To date, The Homer Fund has granted approximately $1.1 million to more than 1,350 associates affected by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

"The devastation from Hurricane Ike is widespread and we are moving quickly to help the residents affected by the storm," said Kelly Caffarelli, president of The Home Depot Foundation. "In addition to meeting the immediate needs of our associates and communities, we are also supporting the longer-term efforts by investing in organizations that will rebuild these communities in a healthy, sustainable way."

The Home Depot closed 53 stores in the Houston, Galveston and Beaumont area prior to Hurricane Ike making landfall. As of this morning, only 6 remain closed. In an effort to give affected associates the time they need to attend to personal matters following this storm, associates from other parts of the country are coming in to help staff the stores in the affected areas. Thus far, the Company has coordinated the transport and lodging for approximately 450 relief associates.

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