Katrina aftermath update

This post may be a little long, but it does contain some information you are not likely to get elsewhere and I feel it will be worth a read.

First, as I was away on a retreat, King of Peace Church and its Day School successfully delivered supplies to those suffering from the effects of the Hurricane. Here is a note from our Preschool Director, Gillian Butler, who took the supplies:

Father Frank,
Just to let you know we arrived safely and with gas in the tank,all though that was a challenge. All the donations were delivered to The First Baptist Church of Theodore for delivery,on Monday, to Bayou La Batre, Al. It is a completely destroyed town on the Gulf coast, close to the Mississippi State line. This town was shown by the media (CNN, FOX) with all the large shrimp boats piled up in streets and in the woods. Relief is just starting to reach them and everyone is extremely grateful to forward this delivery to people in need.

A personal thank you to the many people, who helped with this journey and to the wonderful people whom I met in receiving all these items. They included;

170 gallons of water
10 gallons of bleach
numerous baby products and diapers
hygiene products
5 cases of toilet tissue
10 grocery bags full of canned goods
batteries
blankets and pillows
clothing,
all monetary donations are going to the purchase of baby formula, food and diapers.

Thank you for your prayers
~Gillian

The Diocese of Mississippi notes at their website: The coastal area is not prepared to recieve individuals without prior clearance through LESM, the Diocese of Mississippi or another FEMA approved agency.

Offers to House Refugees
The Diocese of Mississippi has been inundated with offers to house persons all over the nation. They are working to connect refugees with those willing to house them...it's going to take a few more days to get all the necessary support structure in place. email your willingness to assist in this way to HOUSING@DIOMS.ORG . This account has been set up so that helpers here in our office can sort and begin responding in a more timely fashion. We are asking people to include in their email offers COMPLETE contact information, number of persons they are willing to house, etc.

Going to assist

Additionally, the offers to come in and help are numerous. We don't want to turn people away - but we are still trying to rescue, recover and figure out how to support volunteers in an area with NO REMAINING INFRASTRUCTURE. Remain energetic! The more self-sufficient your plans are, the faster the Diocese of Mississippi can use you. Email willingness to go work to RELIEF@DIOMS.ORG

For more information on how the Episcopal Churches of the Gulf Coast are doing and what the Episcopal Church is doing to respond to this crisis, you will find the following links useful:

Episcopal Relief and Development
Episcopal Migration Ministries
Episcopal News Service
Diocese of Louisiana
Diocese of Western Louisiana
Diocese of Mississippi
Diocese of Alabama
Diocese of Central Gulf Coast
The Office of the Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies

Missing Persons Search
http://www.lycos.com/katrina/
http://boards.news.yahoo.com/boards/

Not in the news
Finally this from the EMS news service. It is from a report filed by two paramedics in New Orleans for a conference when the Hurricane struck,

We also suspect the media will have been inundated with "hero" images of the National Guard, the troops and the police struggling to help the "victims" of the Hurricane. What you will not see, but what we witnessed,were the real heroes and sheroes of the hurricane relief effort: the working class of New Orleans. The maintenance workers who used a fork lift to carry the sick and disabled. The engineers, who rigged, nurtured and kept the generators running. The electricians who improvised thick extension cords stretching over blocks to share the little electricity we had in order to free cars stuck on rooftop parking lots. Nurses who took over for mechanical ventilators and spent many hours on end manually forcing air into the lungs of unconscious patients to keep them alive. Doormen who rescued folks stuck in elevators. Refinery workers who broke into boat yards, "stealing" boats to rescue their neighbors clinging to their roofs in flood waters. Mechanics who helped hot-wire any car that could be found to ferry people out of the City. And the food service workers who scoured the commercial kitchens improvising communal meals for hundreds of those stranded.

Most of these workers had lost their homes, and had not heard from members of their families, yet they stayed and provided the only infrastructure for the 20% of New Orleans that was not under water.

They all need our prayers and our support and will continue be in need for quite a while. As I have more information, it will be added to this blog.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor + King of Peace Episcopal Church