A convoy of search and rescue specialists pulled out of Salt Lake City on Tuesday bound for the hurricane-ravaged South, one of several Utah-based relief operations.

Utah Task Force One, the urban search-and-rescue team made up of members of the Salt Lake City Fire Department and the Unified Fire Authority, is traveling by trucks and chartered bus to Camp Shelby, Miss., where it will be dispatched to help with water and collapse rescue operations.

Most of the 28 search-and-rescue specialists deployed from Utah saw action at the World Trade Center after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to Capt. Gaylord Scott of the Unified Fire Authority. They are traveling with about $1 million worth of emergency rescue supplies.

The Greater Salt Lake Chapter of the American Red Cross has already sent nine Utah volunteers to the South, including three who left Tuesday afternoon in an emergency response vehicle bound for Little Rock, Ark., where they will be dispatched to needed areas, said Mariann Geyer, CEO of the local chapter.

Ten trucks from the Bishop's Central Storehouse in Salt Lake City have been dispatched to New Orleans by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to help with relief efforts.

In addition, because of its past experience with hurricane relief, the church's bishops' storehouses throughout the southeastern United States are well-stocked with food commodities and emergency relief supplies such as generators and chain saws, LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills said. These supplies, including tens of thousands of hygiene kits requested by the American Red Cross, are already being transported to the hardest hit areas, he said.

Local church leaders in the affected areas are coordinating with emergency response managers at church headquarters to assess damage, determine needs and coordinate volunteer efforts. Meanwhile, three chapels in Hattiesburg and Jackson, Miss., and in Alexandria, La., are being used for emergency shelter.

Missionaries in coastal areas of Louisiana and Mississippi were evacuated on Saturday and Sunday to safe inland areas where they are staying with other missionaries, Bills said.

National fund-raising efforts have been mobilized by United Way and the American Red Cross. The United Way Hurricane Katrina Response Fund will allocate money for both front-line disaster relief and long-term recovery needs, according to Deborah Bayle Nielsen, United Way of Salt Lake president and CEO.

According to the American Red Cross, their relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims is "the largest mobilization of resources for a single natural disaster in our history." The Red Cross is preparing 500,000 hot meals a day and will distribute drinking water and other supplies.

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