Pastor’s Reactions
To New Orleans

There is no way in such a short time to capture or explain what is here in New Orleans. This is a fascinating city, different from any other place Judy and I have ever seen.

It is a working city: all day long huge barges and their tugs ply the Mississippi, loaded trains and trucks leave the docks and massive factories churn out their products.

It is a playing city: a land of Mardi Gras beads hanging on trees, of parades (seven or eight on St. Patrick’s Day weekend), and dinners put on by Catholic, Cajun, and parish clubs almost every night.

It is a beautiful city: majestic homes under the gracious shade of live oak trees lining St. Charles Avenue, stately mansions on Lake Pontchartrain’s shore, and the lighted Superdome against the dark sky.

It is an ugly city: the Ninth Ward and East New Orleans sections with their unending display of destruction, miles of broken and undulating roads, enormous pumping facilities constantly working to hold the waters back.

It is a city of quaint places and names: the coffee houses, jazz parlors and boutiques of Magazine Street, the crazy course of Hickory, Dickory and Dock Streets and the coupling of Desire and Pleasure streets in the middle of Katrina’s devastation.

It is a city of striking images. We, a group of workers and I, were with a home owner as we prepared to go into her home. She had not been in the house since the night she fled Katrina. She was lively and thanking the group for coming to help when she opened the back door and it hit her. There was her home, her life for the past 25 years, smashed and broken and lying pulp-like covered with black and green mold. She collapsed, emotionally and physically collapsed while all the helpers stood by and tried to imagine what six feet of standing water could do to a person.

I was on Marigny Street in East New Orleans with a group of Chinese-Americans who came from their church in Austin, Tex. to help. This area was buried under the waters from the defective London Avenue canal and Lake Pontchartrain. We approached the door of a small brick, single story home, a door no one had entered since Katrina. As soon as the door was opened the flood of smells, sights and emotions came rushing towards us.

Clothing and books scattered about; the ceiling fan blades hanging limp, CD’s, plates and glasses and broken furniture cast about, a bed standing upright against a side wall. A cloudy photo of a young man and his B-29 hanging lazily on a wall. Above, the ceiling was falling apart and wet insulation hung down almost to the floor. And all around us was mold and a heavy, deeply sad silence.

Three days later, when the group left for home, the little house on Marigny was gutted, taken down to the studs, ready for the cleansing and rebuilding to begin. Who would move in some day was unknown. The last occupants, an elderly couple, had fled to Florida where, within a few months of each other, they died. Their daughter wanted as many of the photographs as we could find saved for her. She said we could keep the jar of coins if we found it and we did, loaded with dimes and murky water.

I stood next to the United Church of Christ Disaster Relief Ministry pickup truck at the beginning of a cul de sac built up with lovely town houses. I counted over 70 dwelling units. Every single one was empty. The only sign of life were four small FEMA trailers parked in front of four of the units. There was no grass, no trees, nothing but emptiness and silence. A group of Benedictine College (Lisle, Ill.) students arrived on their bus ready to bring some laughter and life to Lakeview Street and to gut one unit.

This is an amazing place. And, if Jesus is present whenever his name is mentioned, he is all around all the time.

If you cannot come and be on the scene and still want to do something extremely helpful, please send a check, or Home Depot and Lowes gift cards to: UCC Disaster Recovery, 135 Sauve Rd, River Ridge, LA 70123.

Rev. Douglas Moore

Sharon

Douglas Moore, Pastor of the Norwich Congregational Church, and his wife Judy are serving two months with Partners in Service in New Orleans.