Upstate residents touched by horrific images of people along the Gulf Coast left destitute by Hurricane Katrina are helping with monetary donations, food and other necessary items.

From the ever-present comfort provided by the Red Cross to a fund-raising telethon by television station WYFF and the promise of medical staff help from St. Francis, the giving mounts.

Many people are donating through local companies, organizations and churches. But some are taking matters into their own hands.

Mauldin resident Beth Rochester is one of them. She was among a dozen volunteers camped out in the Woodruff Road Wal-Mart parking lot Thursday afternoon. All were collecting or packaging donated toiletries and other nonperishable items to be loaded onto a tractor-trailer truck owned by her father.

Her family plans to drive the truck to Louisiana next week.

Rochester said she came up with the idea while watching cable news earlier this week. She said her efforts have been met with an overwhelming response.

"I just couldn't sit at home," Rochester said Thursday afternoon, surrounding by shopping carts full of donated items.

Fluor Daniel employees helped co-worker Charlie Lyda load up baby supplies, over-the-counter medicines, prepared foods, toiletries and three generators onto a large U-Haul with a trailer on the back Thursday.

Lyda, a native of Pascagoula, Miss., plans to drive the truck full of supplies to his hometown, where his parents' and other family members' homes were severely damaged by the storm.

"It's a chance for me to give back to the community," he said.

Lyda sent out an e-mail Wednesday morning asking his co-workers to donate items for him to take to Mississippi.

"What an outstanding response to the call," he said. "I just had an idea to do all of this."

Although many residents want to help with relief efforts by donating food, water and other supplies, the American Red Cross and Salvation Army would prefer monetary donations.

Both are accepting only money for emergency relief because of the difficulty of getting trucks into the areas hardest hit by the hurricane.

"From Greenville we're not able to approach the disaster site," said Pamela Garcia with the Salvation Army. "We can't gets trucks down there with donated goods. So we're just asking for monetary donations."

Mary Thomas, a spokeswoman with the Upstate chapter, said individuals or businesses that are collecting goods to ship to the disaster site should seek out a reliable organization willing to receive donations and capable of transporting them to the disaster site.

So far the Red Cross has sent 10 volunteers from the Upstate to Gulf Coast states, Thomas said.

WYFF-TV 4 has teamed with the Red Cross to raise money for victims of the hurricane through a telethon.

"We try to convince people that the best thing to do is give money," said news director Andy Still.

As of 9 p.m. Thursday, Still said the station had raised $645,656.

Organizers of this weekend's Spirit Fest gospel show at the Bi-Lo Center said they will donate a portion of the ticket sales to the Red Cross.

The need for blood also is extremely great in areas hit hardest by the hurricane. The Blood Connection, which supplies blood to all hospitals in Greenville, Greenwood, Pickens, Oconee, and Laurens counties, plans to send any surplus blood.

Local supply is already low and Upstate residents are urged to donate at a Blood Connection center today from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday at the Siloam Baptist Church, Easley, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

St. Francis Hospital has four employees -- two nurses, a doctor and a paramedic -- on standby to go to the Gulf Coast. They are members of D-MAT, the state's rapid response team trained to provide medical assistance during catastrophic events. One orthopedic surgeon from St. Francis has already been deployed to Jackson, Miss.

"One of the biggest challenges is the emotional needs of the people you're taking care of," said Jill Heatherson, one of the nurses waiting to go to the Gulf.

"It's very difficult to know what to say to people who have lost everything."

Many local residents looking for a way to help can donate money to their church. Many churches are coordinating disaster relief efforts through their national denominations.

Allen Temple AME Church pastor Caesar Richburg said the AME church in South Carolina is preparing to send money as well as supplies to victims.

He said funds are collected at churches throughout the Upstate and forwarded to churches in the devastated areas.

The Greenville Baptist Association is working in cooperation with the Red Cross and the Salvation Army to provide disaster relief units trained to clean up mud after the water recedes.