Oxford, MISSISSIPPI -As the Red Cross mounts what it is calling the largest mobilization of resources for a natural domestic disaster, students, faculty and community members at Ole Miss University have joined forces to combat the devastation left behind by Hurricane Katrina.

On the Ole Miss campus, located approximately 500 km inland, several organizations, including the Associated Student Body, Student Programming Board and Student Media Center, among others, are collecting monetary donations and goods for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

But organizations are not alone in orchestrating hurricane relief efforts.

While Katrina was still ravishing the Mississippi Gulf Coast and surrounding New Orleans regions, Scott Stewart, a freshman from Biloxi-a Mississippi Gulf Coast town- decided to organize a trip to the Coast for people interested in helping the clean-up effort and rebuilding processes. The response has been astonishing, he said.

“I am truly overwhelmed at the response,” Stewart said. “We’re just looking for people to help.”

At least 25 people have responded with an eagerness to either donate or travel to the Coast and physically help out, he said. At this point, the trip is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 9, with the group scheduled to return Sept. 11. The time of departure has not been set, and the trip’s date is pending safety concerns, Stewart said.

“If it’s not safe next weekend, we won’t go,” he said. “We won’t go until we are needed.”

Stewart said he hopes the volunteers will be able to work in conjunction with the Red Cross or the individual cities of Biloxi and Gulfport; cities he said are most accessible at the moment and most heavily damaged. Sleeping arrangements will be finalized soon, he said.

Red Cross Volunteers are currently staffing shelters for tens of thousands of people in five states- Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas, the site said.

“Red Cross will do everything possible to help,” said McCrummen.

McCrummen said the Red Cross is collecting toiletries, clothing and monetary donations, among other things. She said finding shelter for people is the top priority.

“If you don’t have a shelter, what good is a can of beans?” she said.

Online contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund can be made at www.redcross.org.