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Since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast on August 29, the Salvation Army has been on the front lines of ministry in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. To date, Americans have given a staggering $140 million to the Salvation Army for Katrina relief work.

Now with Hurricane Rita headed into the Gulf, Salvation Army Major George Hood, national community relations secretary, spoke with Christianity Today deputy managing editor Tim Morgan about their relief game plan.

With yet another major hurricane heading into the Gulf, what's on your heart and mind at this moment?

I said to somebody—running through the building—this has been the most stressful day for me since August 31, because we are up to our eyeballs in responding to the needs of people with Katrina. And we're now putting plans together on how we're going to respond to Rita. There's evacuation going on all over the coast of Texas right now because they anticipate a Category 4 hurricane to come in there, and they expect to have three different disaster sites if the storm stays as strong as they expect it to be.

We know always to pray, but what kind of counsel do you want to pass along?

The Christian community has just been phenomenal in supporting the Salvation Army over the last month. We've now received and been entrusted with almost $140 million from the American public. And we don't take that lightly, because it's an extension of our ministry and who we are. We believe the American public trusts us to respond with integrity and responsibility. And that's the burden we carry, that we never violate that trust.

There has been an outpouring from the Christian community wanting to be involved, wanting hands-on involvement in Mississippi and Louisiana. And we've tried to politely hold people off because it would just add to the confusion. There are still many areas without electricity, and contamination all over the city of New Orleans. It's just a dangerous area to be in. But if people could just hang on—we're just waiting for direction from FEMA—in the next few days there will be a shift in the Gulf region to more long-term, substantive, social service care. And I think at that point the logistical burdens of responding to the hurricane will start to lighten up a little bit and there will be room for individuals and churches to get involved in more substantive outreach. We think this stage will last for about four years.

So you are saying to the Christian community to hold off just a little bit, but maybe it won't be too many more days and weeks before those hands will be a necessary component to get the job done.

Correct. And it's going to be long term. We envision needing volunteers and people to help us, not just for the next month, but for at least four years. We've already determined that we probably will be feeding people out of mobile kitchens for a minimum of six more weeks.

That's just staggering in terms of just the logistical details. How are you all coping managerially?

We just sent the senior officer for Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi—who's been really driving his people down there from day one—on a two-week administrative leave. You've got to go refresh yourself and get away. And we've brought in some retired officers who had similar roles to his. We've engaged some of them give leadership to response for the short term. And I think if he can get away for a couple of weeks, he'll be refreshed, he'll be ready to get back here and get going.

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September (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49