Hurricane Katrina redefined natural disasters and their effects on humanity. New Orleans has never totally recovered from the effects of the storm and the failure of the levies, which put 80% of the city under water. It has since invested in new inland protections from flooding and has created a current plan that accepts a “living with water” philosophy. August 29, 2005, changed the Gulf Coast on a fundamental level.
The Hurricane Katrina Collection in the Daughters of Charity Archives contains information about the Daughters who were displaced during the storm: messages of goodwill from friends, colleagues, and Sisters around the world; students’ memories of those days in August and September; news articles about the destruction on the Gulf Coast; and scrapbooks and DVDs about the recovery projects that the Daughters of Charity, along with Catholic Charities, undertook to rebuild in Louisiana and Mississippi.
A challenge for many of the Daughters primed to assist in recovery efforts was the fact that several of them were among the displaced. Alongside nearly 400,000 others in the New Orleans area alone, 38 Sisters relocated to other community homes in Texas, Missouri, and inland Louisiana. Four of their homes were among the 60,000 that were total losses beyond repair.
The collection also documents just a fragment of the recovery in the first two years after the storm. Seven Daughters of Charity returned to areas affected within six weeks to assist in the recovery in whatever capacity they could best be used.
Sisters Mary Satala and Doris Clippard worked with the Society of Vincent de Paul in the Mobile, AL area to perform some of the most immediate work for those affected by the disaster: collecting testimonies, ensuring distribution of food and supplies, and assisting with the preparation of paperwork for FEMA and disaster relief. The collection contains accounts of some of their most impactful experiences. Daughters of Charity served with the community of Sisters, who traveled there to work in short-term ministries during the crisis.
Some Sisters assisted refugees outside the city. Sisters Juanita Chenevert and Mary Ellen Seo took positions at St. Aloysius School in Baton Rouge, whose numbers had swelled with those unable to return to New Orleans. At the same time, Sister Juanita, who was principal of St. Stephen Catholic School in the Crescent City, looked for ways to cover expenses to reopen the school for her own students, many of whom would otherwise be unable to afford recovery and tuition. She and Sister Mary Ellen served with Sister Carmela Molini to deliver books to six schools and a branch of the public library system, working with K-12 and community college students.
From a top-down level, the Daughters collaborated with their brothers, the Vincentian priests, on a project rebuilding the parish neighborhood around St. Joseph’s Church, not far from the Superdome. The goal of this project was a long-term one, to ensure that those still residing there could stay and that those residents who left had the opportunity to return. This service continues today, and “It is now a place where the homeless and those in need are treated with respect and dignity, where they can rest by day as they get the services and food they require.” More information about their continuing work can be found at https://stjosephchurch-no.org/st-joseph-rebuild-center/.
Among other Daughters’ works in the region, DePaul Hospital was forced to close completely and permanently due to the damage it sustained. DePaul Community Health Centers also suffered damage. In addition, the Long Beach, MS – St. Vincent de Paul School and the New Orleans, LA – St. Joseph’s School collections contain information related to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. There is one final aspect of Hurricane Katrina that the collection shows and does not shy away from, and that is the disparities. When Sister Marie Therese Sedgwick, the Visitatrix of the Province, reported to her fellow Sisters in May of 2006, she addressed what the Daughters did and had to do for the Sisters under her purview. But she also placed an emphasis on the greater impacts of a natural disaster like this – on the marginalized communities and those living in poverty who bear a far greater brunt of nature’s fury.
Humanity does not have the power to stop hurricanes, but we have the power to rebuild communities afterward and a duty to have concern for those who are in its pathway.
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