Canada is sending thousands of beds, blankets, surgical gloves and dressings and other medical supplies to the hurricane-ravaged U.S. Gulf Coast.

"This is the beginning of an integrated effort," Dr. Howard Njoo of the Public Health Agency of Canada said at a news conference on?Sunday. "This is just a starting point of what we can give to our American friends."

The agency is sending the relief in response to an official request from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Njoo said?within the next 24 hours, the supplies will be airlifted to a distribution centre in the southern U.S. and, from there, will be directed to the areas they're most needed.

The supplies come from the stockpiles kept on hand by Canadian authorities to respond to disaster situations.

Other Canadian organizations are also sending help to the devastated region. Following a phone conversation with its American counterpart, the Canadian Red Cross has sent 37 volunteers to the region so far.

Don Shropshire, the national director of disaster services of the Canadian Red Cross, said another several hundred volunteers are going to be sent down in the coming weeks and months.

"This is not an effort in which we need to sprint. It's going to be a long distance event," Shropshire said at the conference. "We have friends in trouble and we're doing what we can to help."

Shropshire said the American Red Cross has $25 million US in its emergency reserves but will likely need "more than $100 million" to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Shropshire said Canadians can help out with the relief effort by donating money.

To that end, some teenagers held a car wash in Nova Scotia?to raise funds for relief efforts. Some pubs have offered to hold fundraisers and some truck drivers are willing to drive relief supplies down for free.

Ships to leave Tuesday

Defence Minister Bill Graham announced Friday that Ottawa would be sending three Canadian warships and a coast guard vessel packed with relief supplies to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The ships carrying 1,000 sailors will depart from Halifax on Tuesday. The task group will carry engineers, electricians, clearance divers and medics.

The task force commander, Commodore Dean McFadden, said Sunday the force's immediate goal is to provide backfill for American rescue workers. But he said he expected the Canadian involvement to expand in the coming weeks.

McFadden said the ships going down would carry supplies such as water containers, toiletry kits, insect repellents and other medical supplies needed to deal with "the anticipated level of disease."

Also, a team of divers from Canada's Pacific fleet base is joining the Armed Forces relief effort. The 18-member team is flying from Victoria to Pensacola, Florida on Sunday to join their U.S. Navy counterparts for deployment in search and rescue operations.

An elite team of rescue experts from Vancouver has saved 30 people in a suburb east of New Orleans. On Friday, the Vancouver Urban Search and Rescue team was designated to lead rescue efforts in St. Bernard Parish, where an estimated 30,000 homes were flooded to their rooflines.