The list of recent disasters just keeps growing—from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Jose to this week’s deadly Santa Rosa wildfires—with no respite in sight. Along with the natural destruction, too often many of these disasters going back to Katrina and Sandy have been marked by human failures, with woeful responses that caused only more suffering for victims.

Fearing a repeat of those failings when Hurricane Harvey drenched Houston last month, a band of Texas entrepreneurs formed their own aid group whose name—the American Black Cross—addresses the political conflicts inherent in disaster relief on several levels.

“I wanted to do something to participate in relief efforts, and I didn’t particularly trust some of the older organizations,” says S. Lee Merritt.

The American Black Cross (ABC) reports that it’s delivered around 400,000 pounds of emergency supplies, which small donors mainly purchase and ship via Amazon, to victims of hurricane Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida. Plans are underway to reach Puerto Rico by next week, where Hurricane Maria wreaked astounding damage, and later the U.S. Virgin Islands. There’s also some talk of projects in California, where wildfires are incinerating the landscape.

Read the full article by Sean Captain on Fast Company