BERLIN -- From small children to big business, Germany's floods crisis has unleashed an unprecedented wave of sympathy, support and, above all, hundreds of millions of euros in aid.

One child pledged 55 cents (half a dollar) in pocket money.

Another family promised their nearly-new sofa. TV galas secured more offers, benefit football matches will do likewise.

Big business has offered millions in donations, discounts and free goods -- thousands of shoes, 150,000 drinks, temporary flats, even holidays.

And even before the money began flowing in, tens of thousands of volunteers raced to shore up dykes, fill sandbags and man pumps, regardless of their often distant connection to the flood-stricken regions in the east.

"The catastrophe is bringing east and west together," said German Red Cross spokesman Luebbe Roewer. "The amount is just growing and growing. It's enormous."

By late Friday, more than 113 million euros (110 million dollars) had been pledged by individuals via the main aid organizations, who predicted the final figure could top 130 million.

Added to the 300 million coming from federal and regional government and 70 million from big business, it raised the total so far to nearly half a billion euros.

The floods, the worst to hit Central Europe in living memory, began nearly two weeks ago after torrential rains.

The Elbe in the eastern city of Dresden surged to its highest level since records began 500 years ago.

More than four million Germans have been affected by the floods, which at their height forced the evacuation of some 100,000 people and covered several hundred square miles. Whole communities became ghost towns.

But powerful images of trashed houses, surging torrents and tearful fellow Germans, their tales of lost homes and livelihoods, prompted a swift response from Schleswig-Holstein in the north to Bavaria in the south.

"Please help, don't stand to one side," German President Johannes Rau urged in a televised appeal last week.

When Dresden was fighting for its life, helpers came from nationwide to try to save its Baroque center, working round the clock.

"I couldn't let them down," said Thomas, a 20-year-old who hitch-hiked from Munich in southern Germany to help out.

It was a familiar scene too up the Elbe, along the Mulde, in the industrial town of Bitterfeld, historic Wittenberg and scores of villages.

Many of the volunteers were police, firefighters and engineers.

Many more simply took time off from whatever job they had to help out.

Those who did not help directly, offered money.

According to a poll for the rolling news channel N-TV, 83 percent of Germans have dug into their pockets.

Big companies such as Siemens, BMW, Bertelsmann and Bayer have each pledged at least one million euros, some are offering discounts or vouchers and banks are making interest-free credit available.

With so much on offer, the question now is getting it quickly and fairly to those most in need. A meeting is planned for Monday between the directors of the main organizations and government officials on how best to distribute the aid, AFP reported.

"We have had people ringing up from Cologne who had an almost-new sofa and were offering that for the floods region," German Red Cross General Secretary Juergen Schilling said. "We are enormously grateful for people's willingness to donate."