wake.eat.sleep

It was 5 years ago yesterday that Hurricane Katrina touched down in the Gulf Coast region. New Orleans got a majority of the national attention, but many areas along the coast were affected significantly, including Waveland, MS and the St Clare Parish.

<br /><small>View Larger Map</small>

My home parish partnered up with St Clare's, to help out as much as we could over 5 years, with the hope that we'd be able to see them rebuild their church as they gradually rebuilt their community.

Some folk may remember that I went down with a group of people to help where we could back in 2007.

As we came to learn, Katrina came onshore, bringing along a strong wall of water that came several miles inland, past the train tracks you may have noticed in the map above. Anything along the shore was essentially destroyed.

The church was really that close.

A former walkway.

Although some houses escaped complete destruction, many houses such as this one needed to be rebuilt inside, as long standing water ruined everything but the framing of the house.

Even though we spent the days helping out, we did get a chance to hang out with the friendly Waveland folks at night.

Why, what could possibly be inside that pot?

Delicious! Just as delicious as it looks!

Pretty much sums it up, eh?

Here's the rest of the photo album if you're interested. (Includes a picture of me before they turned on the main electrical switch for the house, AS I was working on live wires. Good times.)

The wonderful news, is that they've finally started the process of building a new church and community center!

(The picture is from the St Clare Recovery website.)

This is great and wonderful news as a church and community center generally serves as a type of hub for many community activities. I hope that its presence will begin to vitalize their community and area.