Pittsburgh is ready to embrace refugees from New Orleans and other areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina, with hundreds of hospital beds and housing units available to those willing to make the thousand-mile journey from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast.

Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy said yesterday he was uncertain how many -- if any -- would take the city up on its offer, which will be conveyed through New Orleans and Louisiana public officials, with whom Pittsburgh has been in contact.

"We may not get any" takers, the mayor said.

Or they may get hundreds. Either way, the city and Allegheny County will be ready with shelter, food, medical care, psychological counseling, schooling opportunities for displaced students and religious support from the city's hundreds of churches, synagogues and mosques.

The wide-ranging outreach effort results from overnight collaboration among dozens of government officials, social welfare agencies, church groups, charities, hospitals and community activists.

Murphy and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato outlined Pittsburgh's offer at a news conference yesterday in the county's emergency operations center. They said 10 Port Authority buses would be on standby as early as tomorrow, ready to retrieve refugees from Houston and San Antonio, to be brought here.

They did not offer a short- or long-term price tag for the endeavor, if indeed it materializes.

Murphy and Onorato, who have been in touch with national mayors groups and county government associations, said Pittsburgh's offer is one of the first of its kind among American cities, but it won't be the last. Onorato said the National Association of Counties sent out thousands of letters this week, requesting aid and housing.

"This could be a widespread response," Onorato said. Already, Detroit, for example, has offered to fly 500 families to Michigan and house and feed them until December. Kentucky's Christian Appalachian Project, an aid group, has set up three shelters, and in Alabama, military police dormitories can shelter 1,000 evacuees. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said yesterday that the state would find housing for 10,000.

And in Philadelphia, Mayor John Street said the City of Brotherly Love could accept 400 refugee families immediately, and up to 1,000 within a week.

It's fair to expect that other cities, in short order, will make similar offers of food and shelter. With literally hundreds of thousands of people displaced, each city may have its chance to contribute.

Murphy and Onorato said Pittsburgh's outreach plan seems to be the most comprehensive, at least at this early stage. (For example, while Pittsburgh has a small fleet of buses ready, Philadelphia is still working out transportation details.) Onorato said that Louisiana officials have told him that "this is the best offer they've heard."

If displaced New Orleans residents take the offer, the mayor said, as soon as next week busloads of refugees, tired and poor, could be on their way to Pittsburgh, stopping at a staging area -- perhaps the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. From there, they could eventually be moved to vacant housing units. The county's housing authority has nearly 150 vacant units, and there are 300 empty beds in the Pittsburgh Project's new dormitory along North Charles Street, between Perry Hilltop and Observatory Hill.

Also, the city housing authority has empty units, and the county's Kane Hospital nursing homes have about 150 beds available to the elderly and indigent.

In all, Murphy said, the city could comfortably accommodate 1,000 or more refugees, not just on a temporary basis, but permanently -- providing them with a home and long-term support over the coming months and years.

"Some of the people we bring here will become Pittsburghers," said Esther Bush, president of the local Urban League branch.

While the Pittsburgh receiving line seems well-coordinated, the trick is extending the offer tactfully on the other end. "We don't want to just go down there and be part of the chaos," Onorato said.

There's a fine line between offering your home to someone and taking them prisoner. But Pittsburgh knows the difference, said Sister Patricia Cairns, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the primary refugee resettlement coordinator for southwestern Pennsylvania. Cairns, who lived in New Orleans for seven years, said "we have a rich history in helping people to resettle. We kind of know the system."

Over the years, the group has helped Russians, Vietnamese, Somalis and others settle here.

After a Downtown church service yesterday for hurricane victims, Bishop Donald Wuerl said the city's Catholic Diocese is committed to helping the stricken area recover.

"We want to be in this for the long haul," Wuerl said after celebrating a noon Mass at St. Mary of Mercy Church. He said the diocese would work with other local agencies to provide financial help or other assistance.

Wuerl said church leaders in the flood-ravaged areas have told him the hurricane has taken an enormous toll. One diocese indicated that 25 percent of its schools and churches "were simply no longer there," he said.

He said the diocese might invite seminarians from the area to come here to continue their training. The diocese had announced earlier that local parishes will be asked to take up a special collection at Masses this weekend. The funds will be sent to archdioceses and dioceses along the Gulf Coast for distribution to those most in need.

After attending yesterday's service, Maureen McBurney of McCandless said she planned to help. "I think everyone feels so helpless," she said, near tears as she reflected on the devastation.

"You sort of want to adopt a family."

At the service, Wuerl urged the congregation to donate and to pray for victims. "God is there for them," he later noted, "but we need to be there for them, too."