Pittsburgh residents, charities, faith groups, hospitals and businesses continued yesterday to assemble teams and dispatch aid to the increasingly desperate and weary victims of Hurricane Katrina.

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Unless otherwise noted, organizations are asking for financial assistance to avoid using staff for distribution efforts.

One of the federal Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, headed by Mercy Hospital's emergency medicine physician, Keith Conover, was deployed to Alabama. At last report, it was in a staging area in a central part of the state and had yet to be moved to one of three hospitals devastated by the hurricane.

Conover had just finished his emergency room shift on Saturday when he got the call from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to go to Alabama. He's with a group of nurses and paramedics, one of 23 teams being dispatched. Conover's group was hoping to reach southern Alabama.

After Katrina first threatened Florida a week ago, Dominion Resources Inc., the parent company for the Pittsburgh-based Dominion Peoples, sent 300 electrical workers south. Since then, 200 more line workers, most of them from Virginia and North Carolina, have been dispatched to Louisiana and Mississippi to help cut down trees and restore power.

Natural gas workers, including volunteers from Pittsburgh, may go down once the water recedes to aid with gas lines, said spokesman Dan Donovan.

Pittsburgh City Councilman Doug Shields said he and other council members will call today for a regionwide effort to help the hurricane-ravaged regions.

Shields said he wants the city to inventory its assets to see what it can send.

Shields said he is urging Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato to organize a similar effort countywide.

Colleges also are stepping in with help, including offers to take in displaced students.

Penn State University intends to offer emergency financial aid and loans to students whose homes were destroyed or whose family members lost jobs due to the storm. It also announced plans to open its campuses to students enrolled this fall at colleges on the Gulf Coast now closed indefinitely.

Robert Hill, vice chancellor for public affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, said the institution would be willing to allow Tulane students who hail from the Pittsburgh area to attend Pitt until they are able to return to their home campus.

Carnegie Mellon University President Jared Cohon, meanwhile, contacted his counterpart at Tulane and offered to help that school and students whose studies have been put on hold.

Bayer Corp., the health and nutrition group, and its Bayer Foundation pledged $2 million in cash and products to aid relief efforts.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross plans to dispatch a team of volunteers, as well as its emergency response vehicle, either today or tomorrow. The volunteers, who would fly to a destination somewhere near the affected region, would help staff any of the 230 shelters that have been set up for the 40,000 evacuees in the disaster area.

The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank yesterday had 56 pallets of bottled water, juice, granola bars and clean-up supplies ready to go if those resources are needed, said Joyce Rothermel, Food Bank CEO.

Yesterday FEMA officials were fielding thousands of requests from rescue workers and volunteers to head south to help in relief and recovery efforts.

Gov. Ed Rendell and the state's emergency management agency were dispatching an urban search and rescue unit, disaster medical assistance teams, National Guardsmen and a satellite communications package to help.

In Greensburg, 26 volunteers trained in swift water rescue in the Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department stood ready to head south with six, 16-foot Swift boats, three trailers and a jet ski.

By Tuesday afternoon, The Salvation Army of Western Pennsylvania was able to accept donations for the relief and recovery effort. Army ministers and volunteers were on standby to travel south and work in mobile kitchens and feeding stations.

Bishop Thomas Bickerton, head of the Western Pennsylvania United Methodists, said the 900 churches in his conference had put out e-mails seeking volunteers for cleanup and food work teams.

Like dozens of other denominations, the United Methodist churches plan to set aside special offerings to be consolidated with relief donations.

Once the emergency is over, the United Methodist Committee on Relief will focus its assistance on rural populations, often overlooked as cities garner the bulk of aid and publicity.

Brother's Brother Foundation, a North Side-based charity that specializes in international relief, is sending 5,000 pairs of shoes and new clothing and hygiene items. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the United Methodist relief agency will help with the distribution.

Bishop William S. Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said a national collection will be taken up in the church's 195 dioceses and that the denomination's social services arm, Catholic Charities, will continue to review needs.

Yesterday, Bishop Donald Wuerl asked Pittsburgh area parishes to take a voluntary hurricane collection at Mass on the Labor Day weekend. All funds will go directly to archdioceses and dioceses impacted by Katrina.

Metropolitan Basil, head of the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, asked his faithful to remember those ravaged by the storms. The metropolitan's jurisdiction includes 85 parishes and missions in Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

At World Vision, a Christian relief agency specifically aimed at reaching poor children, plans were in place to send in teams of relief workers.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations yesterday urged all Muslims to pray and for mosques to hold special blood drives and fund-raising efforts.

The United Jewish Federation is accepting donations online.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, an emergency response agency with the Presbyterian Church (USA), has issued a $10 million appeal for hurricane relief and pledged $500,000 from collective donations and general relief funds to meet needs.