Yesterday Wal-Mart donated $1 million to the Salvation Army for disaster relief. The Salvation Army says the money will lessen the unprecedented devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

"The size of this is massive," said Maj. Dalton Cunningham, Salvation Army divisional commander. "It is covering several states and coming several hundred miles inland. So the needed resources are going to be more widespread. This one is hitting multiple cities."

As of yesterday, "approximately 100 Salvation Army workers are presently working either in the field—such as at shelters in New Orleans—or at national and regional headquarters to coordinate activities. Another 200 are standing by at the perimeter of the storm, waiting on the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assess where best to direct resources," said the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army is preparing to serve 400,000 people per day on 72 mobile canteens. Another 20,000 people can be fed by two 54-foot mobile kitchens.

The Southern Baptist Convention is also prepared to serve 300,000 meals per day, and they expect to be serving half a million meals a day by the end of the week. The SBC's disaster relief program has 30,000 trained volunteers ready to go to coastal areas affected by the hurricane.

"Mobile kitchens, shower units, cleanup and recovery units, and communication equipment from more than 20 states are being moved today to staging areas near Memphis, Tennessee, and Marshall, Texas," said Jim Burton, volunteer mobilization director for the SBC's North American Mission Board.

"The American Red Cross and the Salvation Army depend on the North American Mission Board to coordinate the nearly 600 disaster relief units owned by churches, associations, and state conventions and staffed by Southern Baptist volunteers," according to Baptist Press.

"We're working right now to determine where our units will set up in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. We'll be able to assign units to those locations by Tuesday ...

This article is currently available to CT subscribers only.

To continue reading:

or