After walloping the southern tip of Florida last week, Hurricane Katrina rolled around the Gulf of Mexico, picking up power and punch as she headed toward Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama Monday.
To the relief of many residents, the massive storm weakened by late morning from a Category 4 to a Category 3 and moved slightly east of New Orleans, sparing the city its full wrath.
But, according to Fox News, the city did not escape without damage. Levees broke inside New Orleans, waves crashed through city streets, and houses were flooded up to the ceiling. Tornado warnings were issued in various parts of the region.
The governors of Mississippi and Alabama declared states of emergency, and curfews were imposed in many towns for much of Monday. Coastal-area residents were urged to evacuate.
"Katrina recorded a surge of more than 20 feet in Mississippi," Fox reports, "where windows of a major hospital were blown out and billboards were ripped to shreds. In some areas, authorities pulled stranded homeowners from roofs or rescued them from attics. In Alabama, exploding transformers lit up the early morning sky and muddy, 6-foot waves engulfed stately, million-dollar homes along Mobile Bay's normally tranquil waterfront."
Preparing in advance for Katrina, the Salvation Army's Emergency Disaster Services teams in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi have already placed 38 Mobile Feeding Units and two fully-equipped mobile kitchens on alert to deliver crucial support to hurricane victims, emergency aid workers, and volunteers in affected areas for as long as they are on the scene.
Mobile Feeding Units, serving 5,000 meals per day, and mobile kitchens, serving 20,000 meals per day, are the Federal Emergency Management Agency's preferred food provider during hurricane response efforts. The Salvation Army will dispatch the vehicles to areas identified by state and local disaster management officials, including clean-up sites, emergency shelters and flooded regions.
The Salvation Army also distributes clean-up kits, containing brooms, mops, buckets and cleaning supplies. Other resources provided include drinking water, shower units, and first aid supplies. Food and supplies were placed in areas on Sunday afternoon, where they were kept at a safe distance from coastal and inland storm-surge regions yet close enough to be moved immediately after the storm to meet the needs of victims and first-responders.
Operation Blessing (OBI), an international relief and development organization based in Virginia Beach, Va., is prepared to respond as disaster-related needs emerge. Six of OBI's tractor trailer trucks are already dispatched and picking up food, cleaning kits and relief supplies.
