Some Hurricane Katrina Damage Repaired

This is a completely extraneous blog entry, but I thought I would put up a little reminder that New Orleans is still working towards recovery after Hurricane Katrina. Most of you know that I was accepted to the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (MPH program) and that I moved into an apartment in New Orleans late August 2005. You probably also know my marginally thrilling tale of evacuating several days before Hurricane Katrina hit, taking a semester of classes at Texas A and M University and then returning to New Orleans and taking class at Tulane from Jan 2006-Dec 2006. Living in a city recovering from a huge natural disaster was an eye-opening experience. A lot of the inequalities and problems facing our society become painfully apparent. (For example, Charity Hospital, the free hospital for the poor and uninsured closed after Katrina while the private and more elite hospitals were able to recover and reopen).

While I was in New Orleans I enjoyed attending a church that had sustained heavy damage during the Hurricane. Some of the churches I visited seem to be really battered, discouraged, or even depressed because of what the hurricane had done to their city and church. This church, however, seemed to draw strength from the hardships they had gone through. The services took place in the social hall because the sanctuary was mostly under construction/leaking/unsafe because of Katrina damage. (Also at this church one of the funniest misunderstanding that has ever happened to me occurred. Ask me about sometime and I will give you the full story).

Two days ago I received an email from this church saying that after 2 years of labor and construction they had finally succeeded in replacing their broken steeple. I though I would share some of the pictures with you:


The church's roof after Hurricane Katrina (from the Rayne Memorial Church website)

The remains of the steeple after the Hurricane (also from the Rayne website)

The new steeple as of October 30, 2007. (from an email)