I have a lot of Harrisburg City cop friends that have volunteered in NO and will be leaving this week. My city is sending a full 20% of it's active police force to NO to help...pretty amazing. Another friend of mine is a building contractor that is heading down to help rebuild parts of Mississippi. All of these folks expect to be there for months, not days or weeks.
I'm not able to help out directly like they are, but I've decided to cash out most of my BR to donate to relief efforts. Thanks to Jane for introducing me to this charity: http://www.modestneeds.org/donation/hurricane/
I've also given some of my cop friends a few cartons of skoal to take down and give out. I can't stand the stuff, but for some reason it seems that a lot of cops chew tobacco...so hopefully it will be appreciated by some folks down there.
As for my BR, I will need to drop down a level or two for a while to build it back up - but it is well worth it.