Remnants of Hurricane Katrina, the biggest storm to pass through the Gulf region in recent memory, are moving toward Pennsylvania, but it is unlikely the Nittany Lions' first contest of the year will be affected by the weather.

At this point, the university does not think changes will need to be made to parking accommodations because of weather conditions, Penn State spokesman Tysen Kendig said.

In the past, some grass-area parking was closed because of flooding from hurricanes, Kendig said.

"Fortunately, we have some time to evaluate [the situation]," Kendig said. "It's never been a problem that we don't expect to overcome."

Penn State meteorologist Geoff Cornish said by this weekend, good weather should move into State College.

"The storm has rapidly weakened after making landfall," Cornish said. "There will still be a lot of rain, but it will track west of State College, near Lake Erie."

Cornish said he doesn't think the rain will cause flooding in the State College area. The heaviest rain will be in northwest Pennsylvania and Ohio; State College should only experience an inch of rain, he said.

Local businesses are also preparing to help with disaster relief efforts in the wake of the storm.

Central Pennsylvania School of Massage, 336 S. Fraser St., and Rider Auto Inc., 1703 W. College Ave., will be holding a press conference today to announce that they are collecting items for Hurricane Katrina relief.

Sara Craig, of Rider Auto, said donations can be taken to Rider Auto or the Central Pennsylvania School of Massage. Donation information is available by calling 234-4900.

"Cash donations will be split between the Red Cross, UMCOR [United Methodist Committee on Relief] and the Salvation Army, unless people specify," she said.

Cornish said the rain should subside by today, and things should dry out by tomorrow night. The humidity will also decrease, Cornish said, and State College should expect a beautiful weekend.

No hurricane relief blood drives have been scheduled to benefit the areas most affected by Hurricane Katrina. Centre County Red Cross spokeswoman Marianne Spampinato said the storm has not had an impact on blood collections at this point.

"We have not yet received any guidance about that," she said. "Our region has not yet been asked to respond to help provide blood."

Spampinato stressed that there is still a shortage of blood and donations are always needed.

Students wishing to donate blood should contact the Centre County chapter of the American Red Cross, State College office at 237-3162.

The potential for poor weather conditions forced the delay of a test the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation was expecting to conduct today, said Marla Fannin, a PennDOT spokeswoman. The department planned to test a substance called Bauxsol, which may prevent the damaging runoff of pyrite into the water supply.

"We obviously want the weather to be good," Fannin said. "We took a look at the projected path and believe that we won't have conditions to have good demonstration."

Fannin said the test was rescheduled for Sept. 9.