Yup, lots of people are vainly praying to their imaginary friend to make Hurricane Sandy smash someone else's city. Let's do something useful instead.

While religious right zealots are blaming Hurricane Sandy on gay marriage, or atheists, or the UN, or Obama, or My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, or are vainly clasping their hands together and asking the deity they believe created the storm and decided its path to change his mind and destroy someone else's city instead (i.e., a "miracle"), the Red Cross is sending 1,200 responders to the area, already hosting 3,000 people in shelters, and sending blood supplies from across the nation to prepare for the storm of the century. Here's how you can help:

Contact the Red Cross online or by phone to donate. You can designate contributions for the disaster relief fund at RedCross.org, or by calling 800-RED CROSS.

Donate via text. You can text "RedCross" (as one word, no spaces) to 90999 to automatically donate $10 to the American Red Cross. You can't designate where this donation goes; it will be directed "where needed most". The donation will show up on your next telephone bill.

No doubt there will be other relief organizations popping up in the next few weeks. Some may not be legitimate. These are, but aren't set up for Sandy just yet:

The Skeptics and Humanists Aid and Relief Effort (SHARE) is managed by the Center for Inquiry, and has operated since 2005. SHARE most recently raised nearly $11,000 from skeptics, humanists, and others to send (in its entirety) to the Red Cross for tornado relief in Joplin, Missouri.

Center for Inquiry is based in Amherst, NY, and may be unable to update their website due to power outages. It is likely their offices are closed today, and will likely be so tomorrow. They do not presently have a SHARE donation link set up.

Non-Believers Giving Aid, hosted by the Richard Dawkins Foundation, is presently directing donations to Doctors without Borders.