Jill Coryell stood in the front row of St. Andrew's Cathedral yesterday during a prayer service for Hurricane Katrina victims, fanning her tears and clutching her granddaughter Kalei.

"Our family has been horrified and devastated watching this," Coryell said after the service.

She and about two dozen other business people and St. Andrew's parishioners gathered for a noontime service of prayer and reflection for all suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The Rev. Ann McElligott, in her opening remarks, urged members of her parish to do whatever they could for the victims. "We live on an island far away and know the fragility of our own lives in the face of a hurricane," she said.

McElligott began planning the service last week after Coryell suggested it during a phone call. "It needed to be done," McElligott said. "It's a way for people to come together and express their oneness with those who are suffering," she said.

Young and old, teachers and lawyers, even visitors from Japan came together to pray for the victims.

Ernest Nomura, a lawyer who works downtown, heard about the service on Sunday and said he wanted to offer a prayer. "We need to do what we can," he said.

Some members of the church had more personal connections to victims.

The Rev. Honey Becker, cathedral deacon and New Orleans native, said her family escaped safely from their home near Lake Pontchartrain, but thousands weren't so fortunate.

"It's hard to watch the suffering," she said. "Once the bodies show up, that's going to be harder."

In addition to offerings of prayer, Coryell, a former flight attendant, and her sister Judy Coryell, a professor of deaf education at the University of Hawai'i, said they are inviting a deaf family from the Gulf Coast to fly to Hawai'i and live in their home while the area recovers.

"In times like this, we're all family," she said.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.