Hurricane Katrina Update

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for all of your prayers for the people living in the New Orleans area. My family is safe in Tennessee. BayouMaMa and her family are also safe. She heard from a neighbor that a tree was down and she had possibly taken in some water on her porch area, but overall no major problems. FreeInHim evacuated safely, but may have flood damage to her home (she lives further east closer to where the eyewall passed). We are praying for the best for her home, but praising the Lord for her safety.

My brother-in-law is a police officer who had to stay in our parish through the storm. If you have been watching CNN you have seen devastating pictures of New Orleans and further west into Jefferson parish (cities of Metairie and Kenner). Our parish is directly to the west of that. Our parish is divided by the Mississippi River and we live on the Westbank side. On the other side of the river is where the bulk of the devastation is. From what we hear, the only damage to my house is a fence that blew over. My sister lives a couple of streets over and her house had some flooding in an addition in the back of her house. My parents' have a tree down on the roof over their bedroom (we don't know yet whether the roof was actually breached and water came inside from the top), and their home did flood due to rising water, although there is no estimate yet on how much flooding occured since there is still standing water on their street. The authorities are telling us not to come back yet because we have no electricity - estimates at this point are between 10 days and 6 weeks for when we will get power back. The most frightening part of the whole thing is that we have almost NO communication with people anywhere in the New Orleans area. Our cell phones are almost IMPOSSIBLE to dial from due to so many towers down.

Our parish did not sustain the kind of damage reported in New Orleans. We have some structural damage to buildings and homes, some flooding, and MANY, MANY trees down, but we were so fortunate. Had the hurricane continued on its course and not turned north our parish would have been destroyed. It is so difficult to watch CNN and see places just 30 minutes from our homes destroyed (the Superdome is only about 30-40 minutes from home). Malls that we frequent are under water...homes of friends are flooded...people are trapped...

When the tsunami happened several months ago it was so upsetting to see the footage on the television, but there was a sense of "that could never happen to me"...Now devastation has happened on our doorsteps and it leaves me almost speechless...

Thanks so much to all of our online friends for your love and prayers and support. We will try to keep all of you updated as often as possible as we hear the information.