4,000 LDS volunteers helping out in Gulf Coast

This weekend, about 4,000 volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be in the Gulf Coast to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The volunteers will work all day today and until midday on Sunday, clearing debris and covering damaged roofs with tarps to prevent water damage.

Much of the work will be done in areas designated by community residents as the most needy. Some of the areas hit hardest by Katrina are only gradually becoming accessible to volunteer work crews, according to a release from church public affairs.

Over the next two weekends, additional volunteers from LDS congregations will assist in cleanup efforts. About 4,000 volunteers will be committed each weekend.

Another 1,800 will volunteer over three weekends in October.

"I don't think that we've ever had that kind of effort in a sustained way," said Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the LDS Presidency of the Seventy. "And it's not the end."

This weekend's volunteers hail from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and Texas.