Major League Baseball and the Players Association stepped up to the plate on Thursday and donated $1 million to the American Red Cross to aid relief efforts for the many survivors and people displaced this week by the ravages of Hurricane Katrina.

While pictures of a devastated Gulf Coast and a flooded New Orleans continued to burn lasting images into the minds of Americans, a number of MLB teams joined the effort with donations, clothing and food drives at their ballparks.

In Thursday's announcement, Commissioner Bud Selig said that through the help of fans, MLB employees and business partners, baseball hopes to ultimately raise as much as $3 million.

"Major League Baseball wants to do its share to help those who are suffering from the devastating wreckage caused by Hurricane Katrina," Selig said. "I thank the Players Association for joining us in making this initial contribution and I thank in advance our clubs, players, employees, business partners and fans who offer assistance in the days ahead.

"We in Major League Baseball express our sorrow to those who have lost loved ones, and we pray for a swift recovery for those whose lives have been so tragically and unbearably disrupted."

Those who wish to donate to the American Red Cross can visit the Red Cross Web site or call 1-800-HELP-NOW. In addition, for every purchase made at the MLB.com Shop, $1 will be donated to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief.

Other organizations are also accepting donations online.

Moreover, individual teams have also aided greatly in the relief efforts.

The Dodgers, for instance, raised about $200,000 in the Dodger Stadium parking lot on Wednesday, while the Yankees donated $1 million to the American Red Cross.

On Sept. 7, when MLB celebrates Roberto Clemente Day in honor of the late Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer, hats will be passed at each of that day's 15 games so fans can donate money to the American Red Cross relief effort. MLB will match funds, up to $1 million, donated by fans that day.

Clemente perished in a small airplane off the coast of his native Puerto Rico on Dec. 31, 1972, while taking food and clothing to victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua.

This week's disaster, of course, happened at home.

Hurricane Katrina relief

If you would like to donate to those in need as a result of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, many organizations have set up online donation forms.

American Red Cross: 1-800-HELP-NOW

Americares: 1-800-486-HELP

America's Second Harvest: 1-800-771-2303

Plan USA: 1-800-556-7918

Salvation Army: 1-800-SAL-ARMY

United Way of the New Orleans Area

"This is a national tragedy," said Don Fehr, the executive director of the Players Association. "Players across the country are calling in expressing their desire to help, and we will be working closely with the clubs to provide some measure of relief to all the victims of this catastrophe."

On Wednesday, the evacuation of those people remaining in New Orleans began. Refugees traveled, by bus, the more than 300-mile journey from the ravaged Superdome to the Astrodome, the former home of the Houston Astros, but the process was slow-going.

The first survivors arrived in Houston on Thursday and were given bedding to use on the floor of the facility. Baseball hasn't been played there since the end of the 1999 season, when the Astros moved to what now is called Minute Maid Park.

Thousands of New Orleans residents took refuge in the Superdome when the storm hit on Monday and were forced to live in deteriorating and unsanitary conditions after the storm punched a pair of holes in its roof.

When levees and floodwalls holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain burst on Tuesday, flooding the city, the decision was made to move everyone stranded in the facility. But thousands of people were still on the walkways around the Superdome and awaiting transportation to Houston on Thursday.

"I think [housing people in the Astrodome is] a great thing," said Astros second baseman Craig Biggio, who played his first game as a rookie in the Astrodome in 1988. "You've got a building just sitting there and nobody's using it, and you've got 25,000 people without a home. I applaud our city for welcoming as many people as we can get away from there and helping them out. It's really a great thing."

The Major League schedule was not really affected by the storm, which packed 125-mph winds when it roared across the Gulf Coast on Monday. A game on Monday in Atlanta between the Nationals and Braves was postponed because of rain and wind, and the Tigers-Indians game on Tuesday in Cleveland was postponed because of heavy rains that ensued as the storm traveled north.

The Triple-A New Orleans Zephyrs canceled their last three home games. The team plays at Zephyr Field -- only miles from the Superdome, which is home to the NFL's New Orleans Saints and Tulane football.

According to Atlanta Braves assistant general manager Dayton Moore, there's a good chance that the Double-A Mississippi Braves, who are based in Jackson, Miss., won't play another home game this season. The Mississippi Braves were scheduled to host the Carolina Mudcats in a season-ending four-game series beginning Friday.

Some former and current MLB players who hail from the area were thankful that no one in their families was hurt.

Will Clark, a first baseman who played for the Giants, Cardinals, Rangers and Orioles and who currently lives in New Orleans, evacuated the city with his family and was spared the onslaught and flooding. Clark now does some coaching for the Arizona Diamondbacks, which are run by Jeff Moorad, Clark's former agent.

"He's safe, but he doesn't know if he's going to have a place to come home to," Moorad said on Wednesday through a team spokesman.

A's infield coach Ron Washington spends his offseasons in New Orleans. He and his wife, Geraldine, own a house there, and it has been deluged by the surging waters. As of now, Washington doesn't know if he'll ever be able to go home again.

"I have a friend at FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency], and I gave him my address so he could take a satellite picture of the area for me," Washington said. "He called back and said my [house] is under water. I don't have a home to go to when the season ends."

Red Sox rookie pitcher Jon Papelbon was born in Baton Rouge, La., went to college at Mississippi State and has several relatives who live in the Mississippi-Louisiana area. Papelbon said before Wednesday night's game against the Devil Rays that his family had been spared any loss of life.

Early estimates of those who perished in the region range from the hundreds into the thousands and probably won't be known for months until the water is pumped out of the New Orleans basin, which is below sea level.

"We didn't have anybody lost in the family," Papelbon said. "My godmother lost her house and cars and boat and everything else, but that's about as bad as we got. Everybody else pretty much made it out. They all evacuated. Some went to Jacksonville, Fla., and joined my parents where they live, most of them."

Tampa Bay pitcher Tim Corcoran went through some anxious days while his girlfriend, Dana Jackson, rode out the hurricane at her parents' home in Covington, La., on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

On Wednesday morning, he received a text message from her saying that she was safe and sound. They spoke later in the day.

"All the trees were down, and there was no way out of the neighborhood," Corcoran said. "They finally moved a couple of trees away and pushed them over in a ditch so everybody could get out. She got out and drove to my sister's house in Slaughter and called me from there."

Florida center fielder Juan Pierre is a native of Alexandria, La., a town of 46,000 about 190 miles northwest of New Orleans. Pierre said that he has had a helpless feeling watching the round-the-clock coverage on television and the growing magnitude of the destruction, although his parents' home wasn't damaged by the storm.

"It's sad," said Pierre before the Marlins' game on Wednesday. "I rode down those streets, going to the Superdome a lot as a kid and an adult and I can't imagine it. It's hard. It hits close to home."

Padres pitcher Jake Peavy, an Alabama native, said his family was safe even though they reside in a city that borders the hard-hit Mobile, Ala.

Though his family was spared the brunt of the devastation, power is out in the town and they've had to turn their playroom into a mini-shelter where a generator keeps the air conditioner running. The storm blew off all the screens protecting the house's windows, Peavy said.

"We've got pretty much the whole family in there, about eight or 10 people," Peavy said Wednesday. "Everybody's safe, but there's some pretty good damage to some buildings around there, I know that much."

The Dodgers had some good and bad news about personnel affected by the storm.

Catcher Paul Bako, recovering from knee surgery at his Lafayette, La., home -- some 135 miles west of New Orleans -- text-messaged several teammates and club officials to report that his area had suffered minimal damage.

But amateur scout Dennis Moeller was not as fortunate. Though Moeller, who pitched briefly in the Major Leagues with Kansas City and Pittsburgh, was safe, his home in Slidell, La., was destroyed.

Slidell, which is on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, was almost completely decimated by the storm.