Maine residents in coastal areas are among those in the Northeast ill-prepared for hurricanes, even though the season officially began June 1, according to a Red Cross survey.

To counteract this lack of action, the Bangor area Red Cross is helping to replenish the national Red Cross relief fund.

The national Red Cross uses its disaster relief fund to help with small-scale disasters throughout the state and the country. In the last year more than $38 million was spent on small-scale disasters, but only $21 million has been raised so far to replenish the fund.

Chapters throughout the nation are working to raise another $20 million to help replenish the fund, and the goal for the Bangor Pine Tree Chapter in the campaign is to raise $77,000.

“Publicity from large disasters draws public assistance,” said Bill Reed, emergency service director for the Pine Tree chapter and Maine state lead for disaster services. “Right now there is no Hurricane Andrew that brings in funds from concerned citizens, but the national Red Cross continues to provide aid financially.”

The Pine Tree chapter, which reaches Aroostook, Washington, Piscataquis and parts of Penobscot and Waldo counties, has sent letters to contributors in its donor base to raise money for the fund.

The chapter is not required to help replenish the fund, but is doing it as an extra campaign. “We have a good history in raising money,” said Reed. “In 1998 $1.2 million was raised by contributors after the ice storm. People are also generous with funding smaller community disasters.”

Any extra money raised is put away for preparation for disasters like hurricanes.

Reed also says that 150 people throughout the state are involved in Disaster Services and Human Resources (DSHR). The program sends trained workers out to aid in disasters for two to three weeks at a time. On average Reed sends 50 people a year from the program throughout the country.

According to Virginia Reed, emergency services director at the Rockland Chapter for the Red Cross, the hurricane season in Maine is mostly August to September. “Unfortunately complacency is worse for us because we haven’t had a hurricane in the past few years,” she said. “What year it happens, we don’t know.”

That is why local Red Cross chapters are giving courses on disaster preparation as well as visiting schools and providing brochures at local libraries. “We are trying to get the information out there so that people won’t wait too long to prepare,” said Reed.

Only 35 percent of residents along the coastline from Virginia to Maine said they were concerned about hurricanes and flooding, according to the Red Cross survey released last week.

The poll also stated 23 percent of coastal Northeasterners have assembled a disaster-supply kit that includes such essential items as medications, nonperishable food, bottled water, a non-electric can opener, flashlight, battery-powered radio, money and extra clothes.

The Red Cross surveyed nearly 48 million residents along the U.S. coast and found that about half of the respondents said they were prepared. Of those who are prepared, more of them – 37 percent this year compared to 30 percent last year – had assembled disaster relief kits.

For more information on hurricane preparation, call the Pine Tree Chapter of the Red Cross at 941-2903 or visit the following Web sites: the Red Cross at www.redcross.org and www.disasterrelief.org, the National Hurricane Center at www.nhc.noadd.gov and the National Weather Service at www.nws.noaa.gov.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.