And there's a lot more than this. The Washington Post reported:

At 8 a.m. on Wednesday, as New Orleans filled with water, Wal-Mart chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr. called an emergency meeting of his top lieutenants and warned them he did not want a "measured response" to the hurricane.

"I want us to respond in a way appropriate to our size and the impact we can have," he said, according to an executive who attended the meeting. At the time, Wal-Mart had pledged $2 million to the relief efforts. "Should it be $10 million?" Scott asked.

Over the next few days, Wal-Mart's response to Katrina -- an unrivaled $20 million in cash donations, 1,500 truckloads of free merchandise, food for 100,000 meals and the promise of a job for every one of its displaced workers -- has turned the chain into an unexpected lifeline for much of the Southeast and earned it near-universal praise at a time when the company is struggling to burnish its image.

While state and federal officials have come under harsh criticism for their handling of the storm's aftermath, Wal-Mart is being held up as a model for logistical efficiency and nimble disaster planning, which have allowed it to quickly deliver staples such as water, fuel and toilet paper to thousands of evacuees.

And in another article, the Post noted the incredible efforts of many other large corporations:

The biggest single promise of support has come from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the country's largest retailer. Chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr. called the White House to pledge $15 million to "jump-start" the rescue efforts, the company said. Wal-Mart has a significant presence in the South and is conducting a national campaign to improve the public's perception of the company.

As part of its commitment, Wal-Mart said it would establish mini-Wal-Mart stores in the ravaged region to give out clothing, diapers, baby wipes, food, baby formula, toothbrushes, bedding and water to people in need. The company also said it would provide food, clothing, shelter and money to employees who have been dislocated by the storm...

The funds are coming mostly from the firms' treasuries, but several companies have also agreed to match employee contributions. A few, such as Verizon Communications Inc. and Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., are matching employee donations on a 2-for-1 basis -- a rate that is unusually high, even for circumstances as tragic as these.

A lot of corporate assistance will come in kind as well as in cash. General Motors Corp. is making 150 vehicles available to the Red Cross. Navistar International Corp., a producer of heavy trucks, is working with its dealers and customers to direct trucks to the affected areas. Toyota Motor Corp. said it would ease terms on leases for customers near the Gulf Coast who have trouble making payments.

Many corporate gifts are practical and tailored to the greatest needs of the moment. Anheuser-Busch Cos. is sending nearly 2.5 million cans of drinking water each week to the region, and Culligan International Co. is sending five truckloads of water. DTE Energy Co. is sending tree trimmers.

General Electric Co. is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide electrical generators, trucks, trailers, modular space, medical equipment and water filtration...

Sprint Nextel Corp. is deploying satellite equipment and 3,000 walkie-talkie handsets to accelerate restoration of emergency communications. SBC Communications Inc. will expend more than $4 million a month to help New Orleans evacuees who have been relocated to Houston and San Antonio. At the Astrodome, SBC has set up 1,000 telephones with free local and long-distance calling, as well as free wireless phones and computers with high-speed Internet access.

Cendant Corp., which owns Avis and Budget rental car companies and Ramada and Days Inn hotels, agreed to provide cars and unused hotel rooms to rescue personnel and, potentially, to victims of the hurricane as well. It may also make some of its timeshare resorts available outside affected areas.

Drug companies have been especially active. Abbott Laboratories Inc. has pledged $2 million in cash, as well as $2 million in nutritional and medical products. Pfizer Inc. and Bayer will give millions of dollars in cash and products. Eli Lilly & Co. said it would donate 40,000 vials of refrigerated insulin. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is sending baby formula.

The nation's retailers have also swung into full charity mode. Target Corp. said it would donate $1.5 million and offered land in Louisiana to the Red Cross to help it to coordinate relief efforts. Home Depot Inc. and its charitable foundation donated $1.6 million, while home-improvement rival Lowe's Cos. activated its customer-donation program, which matches gifts dollar for dollar.

J.C. Penney Co. said it will donate $350,000 to the Red Cross.

Wal-Mart dispatched 10 truckloads of water, 20,000 batteries and 20,000 emergency kits to Baton Rouge. It handed over two of its buildings in Louisiana to emergency-relief workers and created a message board system on its Web site for anyone trying to reach family members.

DHL, the express-delivery and logistics company, is donating up to $500,000 of shipping services into and out of the region. FedEx Corp. offered to use its fleet to airlift tons of donated goods. Nationwide is sending truckloads of ice, water, food, diapers, toilet paper and paper towels.

The airline industry is mounting what could become a massive airlift. Several carriers, including US Airways, began sending aircraft to New Orleans on Friday to help take thousands of stranded people to safer territory.

Among the oil companies, Exxon Mobil Corp. is leading the field with $7 million in promised contributions. ConocoPhillips and Shell Oil Co. have pledged $3 million each. Marathon Oil Corp. said it would deliver $1.5 million to the Red Cross. The BP Foundation gave $1 million.

Financial services companies are weighing in and, as might be expected, they are providing largely cash. Citigroup Inc. said it would donate up to $3 million. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said it would donate up to $3 million. Merrill Lynch & Co. has committed $1.5 million, and the T. Rowe Price Associates Foundation, $250,000.

With so many children on the street and without prospects, one company's beneficence is likely to be deeply appreciated. Mattel Inc. said it would distribute several thousand toys to children in the stricken Gulf Coast.

"We, at Mattel, understand the power of 'play,' " said Kevin Farr, chief financial officer of Mattel and chairman of the Mattel Children's Foundation. "We will be working with organizations to ensure children have access to toys that will provide moments of much-needed relief during the difficult months ahead."

Corporate America has responded far more efficently and effectively than the government at any level. Add to that the combined efforts of the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, churches around the nation, major celebrities and plain folks all over and it's clearly: Civil Society 1, Government 0.

And maybe it's that philosophy that has resulted in government's inability to do what was needed. Government and those who work for it are denigrated constantly in modern America by the party that's supposed to be in charge. Since there is virtually no branch of government other than defense and law enforcement that they feel shouldn't be privatized (See Rick Santorum and the NWS.) they don't consider it all that important if important positions in any given agency is filled by their cronies instead of competent professionals. Sound familiar? But of course the response of corporations that you cite doesn't necessarily reflect what they contribute to civil society on a day to day basis and that just might be a bigger problem.

Is this modern conservatism? The defense of a grocery chain? I suppose it speaks ill of liberalism, too, which draws a snobbish comfort in attacking a grocery chain.

What is amazing is how generous some of these companies are -- even after being looted.

First, do the math to compare the amount Wal Mart is giving to its worth. Secondly consider that of many corporations that have agreed to pay their employees salary for as long as they can, ranging from weeks to months Wal Mart agreed to pay 3 days worth of salary. Then consider how many of Wal Mart's employees don't earn that much in a day since they are part time, mostly because that's how Wal Mart likes them.

I'm delighted with the response of many private individuals and organizations and disappointed with some government efforts.

However, before we simply dismiss the government, consider that private industry must still rely heavily on the government for many aspects of diaster relief. FEMA flubbed disaster management, but does that mean the Red Cross could have handled it instead? I don't think so.

Also, while private donations may end up coming in at a commendable $15 billion or so, with insurance covering perhaps $60 billion and the federal government, in the final analysis spending around $150 billion toward both relief and rebuilding, it would seem that for its faults, the government can't be so easily dismissed as an important partner in rebuilding.

Further, government isn't always inefficient. Consider that President Clinton, Governor Keating and Oklahoma City Mayor Ron Norrick all worked together fairly smoothly with FEMA, the FBI, firefighters and local law enforcement among others. Churches, other charitable organizations, and individuals were also indispensable to Oklahoma City's recovery, but Katrina isn't proof that government has to be inefficient, only that it often is. And, sadly, some churches, charitable organizations and individuals also squandered or embezzled Oklahoma City bombing recovery money. So, the private sector isn't without challenges, either.

I am a Wal-Mart employee, I work in Directs at a store in California. My job is a lot of invoicing, dealing with vendors, etc. And before that I worked in the Hardware dept. Either way, I just wanted to say that I am so thrilled to work for a company that has stepped up to the plate like Wal-Mart has. With our stock down $5 from what it was due to the fact that we have over 50 stores damaged by the hurricane, Wal-Mart still immediately pledged 15 million. Every morning at our meeting they tell us what the death toll is for associates and how the relief effort is going. (the numbers are over 22 million with over 9 million raised by associates)

Whenever I get the chance to give Wal-Mart some good publicity, I am happy to do it because I feel that Wal-Mart truly is a good company that really cares about it's customers and associates. In response to Jim S: I know very few part-time associates at my store. I have very specific availability due to the fact that I am a full-time college student and I always get 40 hours a week. It is also a little known fact that the average hourly associate at Wal-Mart makes almost twice the federal minimum wage. I've been with Wal-Mart since Nov 2nd and I have already been through two raises (one 40 cent and one 55 cent) and one cost of living increase for 40 cents. (we are due for another increase in the next month or so) I also have great health coverage. The fact is, Wal-Mart may start you out making what would be considered an average wage in any retail job, but they do give you raises and cost of living increases very frequently and it is very easy to move up in the company into management. I know one person who has been a regular associate for 10 years and she makes over $17 an hour. I am being tangential, I do have a point: if you want to make 15 or 20 or more dollars an hour... don't work retail! Go to COLLEGE... Get a career. I hate that people gripe all the time about how Wal-Mart doesn't pay their associates $12 an hour. But the fact is that it is largely un-skilled labor, people- so don't expect wal-mart to pay your sixteen year old ten bucks an hour to push carts. Get an education. I am...And in the mean time I am happy to say that I work at wal-Mart.

Joel, thanks for sharing the MoveOn.org talking points. I hadn't received them via my aggregator yet.

The discussion here is Wal*Mart's response, not FEMA. That said, once again the local stores that survived were far more in touch with the residents to serve the direct needs of their direct community ...

... just as one would expect a mayor or governer to know more about the bussing needs of the poor and disraught than some big old bureaucracy some 1,500 miles away.

In fact, is this one over many reasons that makes private charities primo. First, they are localized so they understand local issues. Second, they aren't bound by issues such as Posse Comitsuicidus. Third, they can demand accountability in the form of maintaning contact with the individual receiving funds -versus blind handouts.

Yes, as you noted there are some charlatans stealing monies - heck - there's already websites and spam for such 'donations' ... which is why due dilligence is required on the part of the donator.

Then again, if the Fed didn't have to worry about manning drownding school busses - they'd have resources to nail such nere-do-wells and put them to labor for those whom they've robbed (both donators and needy recipients).

Nice to see America's largest corporate political donor giving so generously to Katrina-related disaster relief. That took a hefty chunk out of the $51 million the Walton family saved this year thanks to Bush's dividend tax cut.

Nevertheless, I'm sure they'll still have something left over to continue lobbying congress to make that tax cut permanent, for estate tax repeal, to privatize Social Security, to extend the workday for truckers to 16 hours, to preempt state banking laws, to protect itself against Immigration Enforcement inspections that find undocumented workers, to remove all tariffs on manufactured goods brought into the US, to set limits on class-action suits, to slow down the adoption of mail order pharmaceuticals in Medicare,
and other conservative causes to their liking.

Having just returned from a week volunteering at a special needs shelter in Alexandria, La., I can say without hesitation that Wal-Mart's response - particularly the filling of prescriptions for evacuees - is wonderful. I'm grateful they are being so generous and I don't give a rat's ass what percentage of their worth has been given, because they are not obligated to donate.

Obviously they'd receive bad publicity if they hadn't stepped up to the plate - but the practical benefits of items and services donated thus far outweigh the fact that they could possibly have donated much more.

The ingratitude shown by some of you socialist leeches just boggles my mind.
Thank you, WalMart, for every last cent donated, and every last crumb shipped. Thank you for every last employee you are looking out for. Thank you for the formula and diapers, the contact centers, and your grace in the face of all of the disrespect heaped upon you by every envious greedy smack-talker who ever smirked at your success.

Wurt

Thank you, WalMart, for every last cent donated, and every last crumb shipped. Thank you for every last employee you are looking out for. Thank you for the formula and diapers, the contact centers, and your grace in the face of all of the disrespect heaped upon you by every envious greedy smack-talker who ever smirked at your success.

That's your prayer. Here's mine:

Oh my Wal-Mart, I am heartily sorry, for having offended thee, and I detest all my 'socialist leech' ways because I dread the loss of 'Always Low Prices!' and the pains of regular retail, but most of all because I have offended thee, my Wal-Mart, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of thy grace to confess my ingratitude, to do pennance, and to amend my life. Amen.

OK?

Call me naive, but I'm still trying to figure out how this post could attract anti-Wal-Mart ire. But I'm a red-stater, so what do I know?

"Ire" implies anger. Nobody is angry at Wal-Mart for their generosity to hurricane victims. For my part, I simply wanted some perspective.

Let's not forget the millions in dollars and supplies that have come through labor unions.

Mean Dean,

I'm not affiliated with moveon.org in any way. I don't appreciate the tone of your comments. I'm trying my best to offer my sincere perspective on issues. You don't have to agree but it really isn't necessary for you to imply that others' do my thinking for me. I've not accused you of being either a prostitute for the RNC or a lackey for Josh.