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"I was just a relay kind of station. The message got transmitted on into the Coast Guard, who handled the rescue," said Fillinger, 78, whose ham radio unit is based in his hilltop home in Portland, Oregon "By the evening, we got confirmation that the group had been rescued," including an 81-year-old woman that Fillinger knows only as Helen.

Yesterday's day of prayer has apparently had some effect.

So far, Americans have offered more than $27 million toward relief efforts. The Salvation Army has received $13 million, including two large donations from Wal-Mart and Eli Lilly. "That's an unprecedented number this early for any disaster," said Cunningham.

More hurricane articles:

• Miss. could consider land-based casinos | Hurricane Katrina's devastation of the Gulf Coast gambling industry could sway Mississippi legislators to consider allowing land-based casinos and scrap the law that placed them on the water in vulnerable spots (Associated Press)
• Sympathy translates to aid for victims | Ad hoc fundraising, states' mobilization focus on recovery (The Washington Post)
• Texas shelters fill with Katrina refugees | The shortage of hotel rooms for Katrina victims is igniting already short fuses and increasing the pressures of aid workers across Texas (Associated Press)
• Pope prays for Hurricane Katrina victims | Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday he was praying for victims of Hurricane Katrina and urged rescue workers to persevere in bringing comfort to survivors (Associated Press)
• Why do flood victims suffer? | What is at issue here is not just the rancid old chestnut of some religious people attributing natural disasters, like last year's tsunami, as being the consequence of sin, but something far more insidious (Shmuley Boteach, The Jerusalem Post)
• Utah churches are going extra mile in relief efforts | Utah's faith communities are working with national religious and secular organizations to ship relief supplies, collect funding, organize feeding and cleanup teams and to pray for the tens of thousands of people devastated by Hurricane Katrina (Deseret Morning News)
• Refugee archbishop | Forced out of his New Orleans headquarters by Hurricane Katrina, Archbishop Alfred Hughes was busy in Baton Rouge Tuesday praying fellow storm evacuees, then huddling with top aides to make plans for a Capitol City "administrative headquarters in exile." (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

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Yesterday we rounded up the beginnings of Christian relief efforts.

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September (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49