The information below comes from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance(PDA) regarding Hurricane Katrina Relief it is current as of 3:30PM on September 7, 2005.  More detailed reports can be found at

www.pcusa.org/pda

As the aftermath of the hurricane has unfolded, it has become clear that PDA will be active on several fronts:

• Organizing — Supporting Presbyteries in organizing their own response and planning for long-term recovery. We already have a request from Mississippi Presbytery for $1 Million.
• Shelter — Training and supporting churches that have agreed to become short and long-term shelters for evacuees. Developing a protocol for matching evacuees with offers of housing is becoming an urgent concern, one shared by most of our ecumenical partners.
• Work Site Staging — Setting up, and initially running, staging sites for recovery operations with the support of Norwegian Church Aid. We are hoping to have the first site up and running within the next two weeks. PDA has agreed to allow the American Baptist Church to direct volunteer teams to our National Call Center to register and to use our worksite staging areas while in the area.
• Care to the Caregivers — Long term pastoral and spiritual care for pastors and church leaders, as well as training for those who will do spiritual care in the community, are developing in the presbyteries affected. We are expecting to plan retreats for pastors from the affected areas in October or November and follow up with Compassion Fatigue training similar to what we are doing in Florida for Hurricane Dennis survivors and the 2004 Hurricane affected areas.
• Organizing PDA to support all of these activities — In addition to the PDA National Call Center set up at Ferncliff, we have set up warehousing operations in Houston to support our work on the ground and collect our new Personal Health Kits and Hope-in-a-Box Kits for distribution to shelters.