PORTLAND – After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina became apparent, Penny Lane of Rockland collected more than two dozen boxes of clothing, toiletries and children’s toys and books to help with hurricane relief efforts.

But that wasn’t enough to suit her. So now she’s volunteered to open up her home to people left homeless from the hurricane and flooding that have wreaked havoc on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Lane, 29, is one of hundreds of Mainers who are offering to let perfect strangers into their lives and into their homes. So far, there have been few takers.

Volunteers are signing up with the state, with humanitarian and church organizations, and on newspaper Web sites with offers of rooms, apartments and even vacant houses for those willing to move more than 1,600 miles from the Deep South to the far corner of the Northeast.

Lane, a single mother of twin 6-year-old daughters who works as a painter, has been so moved by the images she has seen out of the Gulf that she put her offer on seven Web sites, including that of The Times-Picayune newspaper of New Orleans.

Besides having two rooms available for evacuees, Lane said she can help them find a job and a school or day care center for their children. She has an old car they can use and promises “a large yard, an extra kid’s bike, yummy food and clean beds.”

“I don’t understand how people cannot be touched by what’s happening,” Lane said. “To not offer what little extra we have is a tragedy.”

Hundreds of thousands of people along the Gulf Coast lost everything – homes, belongings, jobs – from Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that followed in New Orleans.

Large numbers have found refuge in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, while others have gone to other places around the country. A small number of people have come to Maine to stay with family members or friends, and one family from New Orleans is now living in a guest house in the western Maine mountains that was put up by an Oxford County man.

In the weeks and months ahead, tens of thousands of people from the Gulf region will be seeking out places to live as they put their lives back together.

While Maine has thousands of homes that could be used by hurricane victims – the state ranks No. 1 for vacation homes – it remains to be seen whether more evacuees will venture this far.

Maine, with a low crime rate and good schools, ranks high on various quality-of-life measures, but the state is a world away from New Orleans in terms of culture and weather.

New Orleans has different traditions, food, music and lifestyles. Two-thirds of its population is black, while nearly 97 percent of Maine’s population is white.

And Maine is downright cold compared to Louisiana. Winter temperatures are 30 degrees colder on average in Portland than in New Orleans. Snow is rare in New Orleans while Portland averages 71 inches a year and some parts of the state get more than 100 inches.

Nonetheless, there are plenty of offers of help in Maine. About 800 homeowners have signed up with the state to house people left homeless by Katrina.

Among them are Sheila Sawyer and her fiance, who have an empty townhouse attached to their Cumberland home. David and Cynthia Sargent have room in their South Portland house. Keith Dyer of Raymond has three empty bedrooms. Marji Feldpausch of South Thomaston has a vacant five-bedroom Cape on the Weskeag River that is on the market but she hasn’t been able to sell yet.

All have yet to hear any response. State officials say they don’t expect any large-scale coordinated relocation effort, and any evacuees who come here are likely to do so on their own.

Other states including Minnesota and North Dakota made preparations for the arrival of evacuees from New Orleans that never came. Officials were told that Gulf Coast residents were reluctant to move so far from their homes.

Feldpausch said despite the differences between Maine and the South, “people are people.”

“People just need a safe place to live. We are a fishing community. We are a community of people who work for a living,” she said. “I’m certain anyone who relocated would have to deal with a lot of issues of being far away from what they’re used to.”

On the Net: State of Maine Hurricane Katrina Relief: http:///www.maine.gov/portal/katrina/