Church Aid Keeps Flowing to Katrina Victims More than a week after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States, the extent of devastation continues to be defined while the Church maintains substantial humanitarian relief efforts. Three members of the Waveland Ward in the Gulfport Mississippi Stake were confirmed dead. The three are the first known Katrina-related injuries or fatalities among members of the Church. Member counts remain in progress: the Gulfport and Slidell Mississippi Stakes have accounted for nearly 70 percent of their members. At the same time, leadership in the New Orleans Mississippi Stake has made contact with 50 percent of its members. All other stakes in the disaster area have a near complete account of their members, and hope to have all accounted for by mid-week. Although membership of the Gulfport, New Orleans, and Slidell Stakes were evacuated, members' homes are likely to have sustained serious damage. Members from these areas may be displaced for up to six months. Although several meetinghouses in the area are still used as relief shelters, others in the immediate disaster area have sustained significant damage. The Port Sulphur Branch building is reportedly destroyed. Several of the meetinghouses in the New Orleans Stake remain submerged and Elder John Anderson, area authority, plans to perform an aerial survey this week of inaccessible Church buildings. Meetinghouses throughout the Southeast have been used for others in addition to Church members. Evacuees tend to appreciate the smaller rooms, rather than just a large gymnasium. Meetinghouses used as shelters also serve as distribution centers for food and other supplies. The Church has also dispersed significant supplies of fuel, a highly demanded commodity in the hurricane's aftermath. Power and phone services are restored to meetinghouses and other buildings throughout the area, including the bishops' storehouse in Slidell. The Church has delivered more than 40 truckloads to evacuees in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Utah. Sunday, September 4, 2005, some of the General Authorities of the Church visited victims and surveyed the damage on a brief trip through the Southeast. President Boyd K. Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve; Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve; Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Presidency of the Seventy; and Presiding Bishop H. David Burton made stops in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Armond Masselli of the American Red Cross Relief guided the group. Saints and others throughout the nation have expressed desires to serve and aid Hurricane Katrina victims by boosting the Church's relief efforts. Volunteers are contributing humanitarian relief supplies, hours of clean-up help, and funds to boost assistance efforts. Large work parties assisted over the weekend as volunteer relief efforts are being charted out for the future. Progress has been made in New Orleans as waterlines recede and as the broken levees have been repaired. Beyond New Orleans city limits, stability is coming in increments: utilities such as power, water, and communications are slowly being restored. Over the Labor Day weekend, parts of New Orleans were opened temporarily to residents so that they could assess damage to their homes. Though both the Superdome and the Convention Center in New Orleans have been evacuated, an estimated 10,000 residents still remain in the city out of their own volition. Meanwhile, search-and-rescue teams continue to seek out those who wish to be removed from New Orleans.