Red Cross is no place to put your money if you want it to actually go to a particular need. If you want to donate to Red Cross, fine.
If you want it to go to tornado victims in such and such a town, then forget about it. They’ll take your money, but the organization will put your money in the pot and only so much will go to those tornado victims, no more and no less. And they can always say they spent your money on those victims because a budget is fungible.
Remember the "tainted with HIV/AIDES" mess?
And during WW II, they did NOT help our military guys, nor their families; not even the ones stateside, before they shipped out.