Tech students raised money for storm survivors.

The Georgia Tech Office of Community Service and the campus chapter of Engineering Students Without Borders are coordinating a December trip to the Gulf Coast to aid disaster relief workers in areas ravaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The groups are working with the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to determine whether the Tech contingency will head to Alabama, Louisiana or Mississippi after the end of the fall semester.

The Alumni Association worked to connect Tech grads who wanted to help with those who needed it. The Association's database showed more than 2,000 alumni living within a 100-mile radius of hurricane-ravaged regions along the Gulf Coast.

Within days of the Alumni Association going online with a message board at gtalumni.org, more than 50 offers of free housing and business space and the use of a private aircraft were posted.

On its Web site, www.service.gatech.edu, the Office of Community Service also links students to Atlanta agencies - including the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Hosea Feed the Hungry - that are in need of local volunteers.

Georgia Tech students have already pitched in with campus clothing and fund-raising drives and worked around the clock when nearly 300 evacuees were temporarily housed at Alexander Memorial Coliseum in the days following hurricane Katrina. The Institute also opened its doors to more than 50 students whose universities were closed in the Gulf Coast region.

"I have never been more proud of our students, faculty, staff and alumni who have volunteered time, money and creative talents to assist those in need. The Georgia Tech community has responded with heart and help in a way few others have," President Wayne Clough said.

"During the coming months and years there will be many opportunities for the talents of our unique community to help our fellow citizens in the impacted areas recover from this stunning disaster," he said.

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