The most immediate concern is food and shelter. Windy weather initially hampered efforts to set up camps in Jordan. But what began as a trickle of a few hundred there is expected to become as many as 5,000 people a day fleeing the bombing, the danger, and the uncertainty.

"A lot of them are in some pretty extreme shock," says Kelly Miller of World Concern which is operating a refugee camp in Jordan. "Health-wise, they're in pretty good condition but they left pretty much everything behind."

Miller expects the situation in Jordan to mirror what happened five years ago when millions of refugees fled Kosovo. Humanitarian organizations there were overwhelmed by the raw need of middle class families with nothing left.

The refugees now fleeing Iraq are similarly frightened, confused, and tense. But many of this first wave are foreign nationals working in Iraq. They have little money and few belongings to get them through the war.

"And these folks are people that are in the very, very low paying positions within that culture," says Miller, "so they've gotta find a place that has some stability for them."

The Jordanian government is cooperating, but is only letting refugees across as camps are prepared to handle them. That's the situation across Iraq as refugees may be heading to Iran, Syria, Kuwait or Jordan. The challenge is to be ready when and where the refugees show up.

World Concern, based in Lynnwood, has set up a refugee camp just across the border in Jordan. There are already 500 people there, they expect as many as 60,000.

Mercy Corps, headquartered in Portland, has teams in Northern Iraq, Kuwait and along the Iranian border. Federal Way-based World Vision is also staffing a camp in Jordan and has team in Syria, Turkey and Iran. And Northwest Medical Teams is working in Northern Iraq.

For More Information:

World Concern -- www.worldconcern.org or 800-755-5022
Mercy Corps -- www.mercycoprs.org, or 800-852-2100
World Vision -- www.worldvision.org or 888-511-6598
Northwest Medical Teams -- www.nwmti.org or 800-959-4325.