Joe Edgerton and his wife, Shirley, leave today for Bay St. Louis, Miss., where he’ll deliver more than 135 “flood buckets” and other cleaning supplies to those devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

Most of the supplies were assembled during the United Methodist Church’s recent “Bishop’s Round-Up for Hunger” at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds.

“Just about every house down there has sustained damage of some kind,” said Edgerton, assistant disaster relief coordinator for the church’s Kansas East Conference.

“We’ve had 13 crews go down there since Sept. 23,” he said, referring to the conference.

First United Methodist Church, Lawrence, has sent two crews of volunteers. The latest group returned Sunday; a third is expected to leave Dec. 26.

“It’s going to be a long, long process,” Edgerton said. “Just about everybody had homeowner’s insurance but nobody had flood insurance.”