AUGUSTA (AP) – More than 500 Maine homeowners have signed up to house people left homeless on the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina, but state officials don’t expect any large-scale coordinated relocation effort into Maine.

The state is prepared to house up to 900 displaced families in private homes or in current and former military installations in Maine, Gov. John Baldacci said. But as the mass evacuation of New Orleans continues, only a dozen or so families have come to Maine – and they for the most part have to come to be with friends and family.

“Maine is in the position of being on standby,” he said.

Baldacci offered his assessment after participating in a conference call at the Maine Emergency Management Agency with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, Director Michael Brown of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and governors and gubernatorial staffers from all 50 states.

“My sense from the conversation is they’re done with massive evacuations, unless something goes wrong with what is taking place now,” Baldacci said.

Additional refugees may move to Maine, he said, but they are likely to do so on their own rather than as part of an organized effort.

Nationally, hundreds of thousands of people from New Orleans and other hurricane-ravaged areas of the Gulf Coast have taken refuge in states far-flung across America.

More than 240,000 people are being put up in shelters and hotels in Texas, and tens of thousands have taken refuge in Arkansas and Louisiana.

At the same time, some states including Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, have put their relocation plans on hold at the request of the federal government.