Katrina hits Covington

Hurricane Katrina roared through Covington Louisiana on Monday morning, August 29. The strong winds began at dawn and lasted throughout the morning. Our Father Provincial flew into New Orleans from Sioux City where he was visiting our nuns for their triennial elections. I asked Father Gregory, “How many people were flying into New Orleans as the hurrricane was headed straight for the city?” About 25 he said. “And all were flying home in order to evacuate.” We are unable to determine what shape our house of studies is in New Orleans at this point, but fear the first floor is flooded. Seminarian Paul Phan reported that Carrollton Avenue “was like a river.” Our two students, Vicente Lopez, a seminarian from our parish in Oklahoma City, and Fr. Augustine from Malabar evacuated the city Saturday in our Chevrolet Suburban. Frs. Anthony and Gregory, our Provincial, left Sunday morning in the Ford Taurus. These six took refuge at our Nuns in Covington across Lake Pontchatrain from the city, where they rode out the storm.

This photograph shows the nuns chapel to the left. In the right background is the nuns’ new guest quarters where Frs. Sam and Gregory were staying. The tall structure next to it is called Janua Caeli, “the gate of heaven.” This is where our Secular order meets each month since it was built a few months ago. On the far right with the large window is the newly constructed gift shop. Fr. Sam was digging a trench, during the storm, around the guest house, while Fr. Gregory was holding an umbrella to shield him from the wind. The trench was dug to divert water from the house. As these two were busy with the digging, the tree whose base is in the middle of the photo, snapped with a loud crack, and fell on the sacristy of the chapel. Sam, whose hearing was impaired by not only the roar of hurricane winds but also by his old age, failed to hear that crack. The tree was only six to nine feet away. Thank God it fell away from the ditch diggers.

Here’s another view of that guest house where Sam and Greg were holed up. Luckily they were inside the main monastery building having breakfast when that tree came down on their roof. Thanks to Sr. Aletheia’s insistence, during construction, that all studs be doubled, the roof did not give in under this tremendous crash.

This is the first picture Sister Fides took. It was taken Monday afternoon at 1:41 pm. While the back end of the hurricane was still raging through, there were lulls between the waves of wind and rain. Fides ventured out to the walkway between the monastery and chapel to see what damage had been done. Their covered walkway was still standing except for the sheet metal roof at the end which had blown off near the chapel.
The next morning at 7:08 am, the damage to the walkway roofing could be seen more clearly. This walkway leads into the nuns choir which was undamaged. The sanctuary, in the middle of the photo however had been hit by that tree. Inside it was like a snowfall with insulation drifting down from the hole in the roof that tree had torn out.

Tuesday morning dawned with bright sunshine. This photo shows damage to the sacristy on the other side of the sanctuary from the nuns choir. The tree that had snapped behind Sam can be seen leaning on the roof, while other limbs had torn into the priest’s porch leading into the sacristy. Janua Caeli can be seen to the right. It weas undamaged.

Tuesday morning was spent clearing limbs from the driveway leading into the monastery grounds. Our Father Provincial does his share with help of a yellow wagon while Aletheia pulled limbs out of the Camillas nearby. Everyone pitched in in this clean-up effort, nuns, seminarians, and priests.

After a day of hard work, everyone retreated to the nuns’ library which had been set up as a temporary chapel for an afternoon Mass Tuesday at 4:30 pm. They let the ditch digger preside, while his umbrella holder sat beside him. Fr. Augustine sits on the other side near the lecturn.

On Wednesday, our six refugees from New Orleans, vacated their quarters for some elderly Sisters who had taken refuge at the Benedictine abbey down the road. The monks could not run their generators because of gas leaks. As the brothers left Covington, however, they could smell gas and wondered how long our nuns could continue to run their generator on natural gas. The convoy of Gregory’s Taurus and the student Suburban headed up I-55 to Jackson, taking basically the same route the hurricane had followed. Trees had been cleared off the highway, but finding gas was a problem. They were finally able to get half a tank and made it to Marylake at 2:00am Thursday morning. The first thing Fr. Anthony gave me was a CD Sr. Fides had burned of these pictures. They cannot send out anything on the internet. The Nuns also begged anyone coming down to bring food and provisions.