News from Mobile


A report from the President in Mobile: We are "starting to get back towards normal. Most of the people in Mobile have electricity back now. Also, the gas lines which were two to three hours long, have gone down to under thirty minutes long." [Paul Schubert]

"My roof has a tarp on part of it, due to a few shingles blown off. My curb has a "small mountain range of debris" parallel to it. My phone was restored on Friday, and power on Labor Day. The appraiser came Friday. The two trees that fell fell away from the house; and all but two limbs fell parallel to it. Someone set them down nicely beside and not on or through my house. I need a new roof. I have been knowing that --I guess God decided to give me a little nudge toward seeing that I would get one." [Maureen Caine, Mobile sec’ty]

At Marylake, our Fr. Provincial’s family remains in our guest quarters. Fr. Gregory’s father Gilbert Ross Sr. remains in the hospital with pneumonia. The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, who run St Vincent Infirmary, are taking good care of him, even giving him a private room when he is not in the Cardiac Care Unit. Gregory’s brother Gilbert Jr. works for State Farm Insurance in New Orleans. His job is most important now in the recovery period of hurricane Katrina, and he keeps in touch through a bag full of cell phones he keeps tied around his neck. State Farm is working to get him and his family set up in a house in N. Little Rock. So he and his wife Lisa, and two sons Jeremy and Cory, await the chance to get settled at least temporarily. Gilbert’s job is at least secure, due to the nature of its need at this time. Gregory’s other brother Michael is a graphic artist who worked for a web page designer in Chalmette. His boss’s home was completely flooded up to the roof, so now Michael is looking for work. In the meanwhile he has been helping our nuns in Little Rock with their computer’s web page.