Hurricane Gustav Update for Slidell & St. Bernard Parish, LA
Good evening,
We have been receiving Gustav updates by monitoring www.wwltv.com, focusing on our mission team locations of Slidell (St. Tammany Parish) and Arabi & Chalmette (St. Bernard Parish). I urge you, especially if you are considering joining our March 2009 team, to go to this site and click on live news, then click on browse videos.
8/31 “Raw video: Arabi man not sure about returning” is a probing but compassionate interview of David DeHardy as he prepares to evacuate his rebuilt home. He closes emotionally by saying “God isn’t in the storm, He’s in the peace, and quiet”. If you have been on a mission trip to this part of our country, you will recognize his spirit, sense of family and faith. If you are considering joining us, David may help you make that decision.
9/1 “St. Bernard begins to feel Gustav’s bite”. This includes the anchors’ narrative of St. Bernard’s Katrina experience, suffering the worst devastation of any community and struggling to regain even half their pre-Katrina population of 70,000.
I have also exchanged emails and telephone calls with some of our contacts. Late this afternoon, parts of Slidell experienced flooding by water pushed from Lake Pontchartrain and other water bodies into the rivers and held there by the storm surge. Our friends the Bolians, who many of you know, may have experienced flooding of their partially rebuilt home on U.S. 190. They are currently home in NH. We heard from Rose Wilson, one of our Slidell homeowners, prior to the storm, and she planned to evacuate. Dr. Hugh Craft, our St. Bernard host from Covenant UMC, has evacuated to Tennessee. Howard & Joan McGlaughlin safely evacuated from Baldwin to Woodworth, LA (near Alexandria).
Some of you may have seen national news coverage of water overflowing the west side levee of the Industrial Canal. Our last mission team will remember posing along the new east side levee of this canal, on the Lower Ninth Ward/St. Bernard side. You can see video of this on www.wwltv.com, 9/1 “Waters slam flood wall at Industrial Canal”.
Reports tonight from St. Bernard are good, with no water in the homes or streets, no levee breaches, and minimal property damage. The Parish President stresses that they will get right back on track of recovery momentum. Faith based teams, including teams like ours from the Southeast Louisiana Disaster Recovery center, remain a very big part of this recovery.
Preliminary Volunteer in Mission (VIM) training and orientation take place at St. John’s UMC on September 26 @ 6:30 PM. The program blends the experience of returning VIM volunteers with those who are committed or just thinking about going on their first mission trip.
If you have questions prior to the orientation, call either Patrick Murphy @ 603-557-2781 or Mike Willett @ 207-748-3431. Thank you for your continued prayers and support for the people of southeast Louisiana.
In His Service,
Patrick