I have just been told that our Sister in Carmel, Marion Stearns OCDS from Chalmette did not evacuate New Orleans and drowned. First reports were that she perished together with her husband and two sons. [Cf. comment below] Marion was professed 25-Jan-92, and made her defivitive Promise on 19-Sep-99. Please pray for her and for all those not yet heard from in our New Orleans and Gulf Coast communities.

Father Bob Higginbotham retired last year from a career as an air force chaplain, and returned to his native diocese of Biloxi Mississippi. In response to my inquiry, Did you survive Katrina?: "Yes things got pretty bad and I had to flee the rectory. Lost everything in the rectory but I am fine and staying with my sister."

Gilbert & Lisa, their two sons Jeremy and Cory, the parrot, the blind dog and the three legged cat, left Marylake at 7:00am this morning to return home to New Orleans. In their neighborhood drinking water has been restored and a Pizza Hut is open, so they will survive at home. Our Father Provincial’s father remains in the hospital in Little Rock with a blood clot in his heart. Fr. Gregory’s mother and brother Michael are staying at Marylake to be near him. He just wants to go home to New Orleans.