PORTLAND (AP) - Churches, businesses, nonprofits and individual volunteers have focused all their efforts on sending help to Hurricane Katrina victims after federal officials told Gov. Ted Kulongoski that Oregon will not receive any storm refugees.

The state had prepared for up to 1,000 refugees before the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Oregon on Saturday to formally stand down.

But the governor still praised Oregonians for their "can-do attitude" and offers of "help and resources that we didn't know we had."

Kulongoski noted that more than 1,800 members of the Oregon National Guard are on duty in the relief effort, saying the state was "very proud of them."

Staff Sgt. Doug Jackson had to use a cell phone to listen to the memorial service for his mother in Eagle Point while he was serving with the relief effort in New Orleans.

His mother, Tori Reynolds, died Sept. 2, the same day Jackson was called to duty.

"It was a hard decision to come here," said Jackson, 28. "I had a choice, but I knew my guys need me because of the things they are going to see here. They're going to need someone to help them through."

Jackson, one of about 330 National Guard members from Southern Oregon, was an example of the kind of personal sacrifices Oregon soldiers have made in order to help with hurricane relief.

Meanwhile, more than 40 members of the Oregon Disaster Medical Team returned home Saturday from New Orleans after helping evacuate and treat patients. They estimated they tended to 5,000 to 6,000 patients in a week.

Dr. Jon Jui, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, said it was the most challenging medical disaster he had seen in 25 years in emergency medicine.

The entire medical infrastructure of New Orleans was destroyed in the hurricane, he said. The city's ill, injured and traumatized were dropped off at the city's airport, row after row of patients crammed into the terminal awaiting treatment.

"They were stunned," Jui said. "A lot of them didn't have water or food. They were moved to crowded conditions. ... There were some angry people and there were people who were extremely patient."

Dr. Lawrence Hipshman, a Portland psychiatrist who was on the disaster team, said that people, after surviving the hurricane, were thrown into conditions that were unsanitary, frightening, unsafe and devoid of supplies or humanitarian aid.

"They were rescued from a desperate situation on the roofs of their homes and deposited in hell," he said.

Oregonians were also taking part in smaller-scale relief efforts. For example, three firefighters and a retired chaplain from Clackamas County Fire District No. 1 went to Biloxi, Miss., to patch up homes and schools.

Maggie and Eric Mashia were cooking a gumbo dinner Saturday for about 25 family members and friends who were coming over to drop money in a jar for hurricane-affected relatives. The couple has hundreds of the relatives in Mississippi and Louisiana, they said. The family and friends in Oregon have raised about $6,000 so far.

Maggie Mashia described a cousin, raising four children, who lost her home. "They have two sets of clothes they took when they fled New Orleans," she said.

The Salvation Army promised that about $1 million in cash that was donated in 10 days by residents of Oregon and Idaho would go to hurricane victims, said spokeswoman Rachel Schoening.

The Welcome Oregon Donations Center will send donated combs, shampoo, aspirin and personal hygiene items to hurricane disaster areas but probably will distribute donated bedding and clothing to local assistance agencies.

The Oregon Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross, which shut down its refugee shelter Saturday at the old Washington-Monroe High School in southeast Portland, is using the school to train new volunteers.