From Penny Ramsdell,
September 9, 2005
We here in Baton Rouge escaped the full brunt of the
hurricane. Earle and I were without power for a day, without cable
for two, had a large tree come down on our back fence, and layers of
branches filled our pool and our lawns. The BR church had five huge
trees come down, damage to the playground fence, shingles off, a
little water damage around our large circle window. Many of our
church members were without power for up to a week. Sporadic lack of
phone service. We are the lucky ones!
Many of our members were already housing family and friends from New
Orleans who had evacuated before Katrina hit -- some of them housing
large numbers of family members. Now we are also housing other
dislocated UUs and aid workers. Many of our members are volunteering
in the shelters, delivering goods to various distribution centers,
walking the pets in the animal shelter at LSU. We are fielding
incredible numbers of phone calls at the church from UUs and UU
churches, seeking information, asking about ways to help, seeking
housing.
The city has purportedly doubled in population, with an increase of
at least 40% in automobiles in the city. Traffic tie-ups have become
a way of life, and it's hard to get calls in and out of the city at
times. Serious gasoline shortages have occurred at times. Some items
run short in the stores. Helicopters fly overhead all the time,
sirens frequent. Despite rumors, we have had no civil unrest
here. Everything is doubling up. LSU's arena and fieldhouse are now
hospitals, its agricultural building an animal shelter, the Medical
School from N.O. is squeezing its students and classes onto campus. N.O.
public and Catholic school children are being registered, and
churches, ours too, have offered space to create new classrooms -- of
course, many churches are already serving as shelters. If and when
temporary buildings arrive to serve as housing, we are looking into
putting one up on our church lot. The convention center downtown is,
of course, the largest shelter.
We assume that Community Church in New Orleans is gone -- it was very
near Lake Pontchartrain -- and the levee break, too, I believe. The
minister of that church, Jim Vanderweele, has just arrived in town
this afternoon and we have found him housing. We assume that First
Church New Orleans flooded, at least partially. Its newly called
minister, who had just moved to N.O., Marta Chase, is in the
Dallas/Ft. Worth area, ministering by email and web. The Northshore
Church in LaCombe, LA, lost its roof and is in an area where there is
still little power and phone service (possibly none). Its minister
David Ord makes periodic trips to B.R. to use our phone and computer
at the church.
There is a lot of grief work to do, as well as helping people find
places to live, new employment, missing family members, etc. etc.
I'm serving, not only as church president, but also as chair of our
church's disaster response task force....
We are heartened by all the generosity of our fellow UUs (and
others) and by the contributions flowing in the UUA's Gulf
Relief Fund and other relief funds.
Penny Ramsdell is a former
APF Chair in South West District and is current president of
the Baton Rouge, LA, congregation as well as their disaster response
task force Chair.
