The Midlands could welcome as many as 5,000 refugees from Hurricane Katrina this weekend if local and federal officials can work out a strategy to airlift and house them.

“If we can get people here, our churches and synagogues and mosques will open their arms,” said U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the Columbia Democrat who is organizing the effort.

Clyburn spent Thursday on the phone with commanders of S.C. military bases, officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

One possible scenario is for two flight crews from Charleston Air Force Base to fly people stranded in two devastated Mississippi towns to Columbia and the surrounding area.

Clyburn is focusing on refugees — many of whom are spending their fourth day without electricity, running water and food — from Bay St. Louis and neighboring Waveland, about 35 miles northeast of New Orleans.

Possible temporary homes for the refugees include McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover, Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, Decker Mall, local schools and vacant buildings.

Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said he and Clyburn have organized a planning meeting today to identify the best housing options should federal military officials pull off the airlift.

“We ought to be prepared and willing to provide shelter to those who need it,” Coble said. “Just as with the Bantus, we need to open our hearts.”

The Columbia region over recent years has accepted more than 100 Bantus, who were persecuted in their native Somalia.

U.S. Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., whose district includes Shaw Air Force Base, on Thursday tried to determine whether old housing on the base, due to be torn down, might provide adequate shelter for those displaced by the hurricane.

“I don’t want to raise hopes falsely,” he said, “because there would be a problem moving strangers onto an air base close to a runway.”

Staff Writer Adam Beam contributed to this report. Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com.