On Saturday, Mayor Nagin of New Orleans allowed residents in the neighborhood of our House of Studies to come home, not to move back in, but to at least survey the damage done to our property. A member of the seminary staff checked our house from the outside and reported no windows broken and the flood line just inches from from our front door. We are hopeful at this point the water did not penetrate into our first floor. A warning was issued not to open refrigerators or freezers; simply secure the doors shut and haul them out to have the toxic waste that was our food supply, hauled away by the military. On Tuesday, Mayor Nagin suspended his previously announced reentry plan for the city of New Orleans due to the expected arrival of new Hurricane Rita on Friday. Even without a direct hit, New Orleans could be re-flooded by a mere 3 foot surge from the storm due to the damaged condition of the main 17th Street levee which was breached by the backlash winds of Katrina.

On Wednesday the 21st, our four refugees went into Little Rock to get immunization shots in preparation for their return to New Orleans. As they were preparing to drive out of Marylake, Fr. Raphael passed them on his way out for his morning hike. Raphael yelled out to them, "Don’t cry when you’re shot!"

So the exodus journey back home began Thursday morning. Here is our Father Provincial leaving Marylake to go back home to New Orleans to check on his family. With his parents back home in Harahan and dad recuperating from pneumonia he now finds out, his mother Helen fell out of bed the other night and broke her hip. She was able to check into a neighborhood hospital that had reopened to get replacement surgery. Father Gregory will only have time to move into our Nuns guest quarters in Covington, check with his family, and then he is off to Carmelite superiors meetings in Venezuela and Chile, where he will ask our Father General for some friars to help relieve our personnel shortage.

Brother Juan [left] and Br. Joseph Marie [right] prepare to leave Marylake Thursday morning. Br. Joseph Marie doesn’t appear to have much coke left in that big bottle to keep him going on this long trip from Arkansas to Covington where Notre Dame seminary has decided to relocate their New Orleans campus for this semester. Joseph Marie damaged his back while cutting a cable on our exercise machine. Now he has come down with a cold. Juan suffers from allergies, so neither of our two students expects a pleasant drive back home in the Chevrolet Suburban.

A last minute checkup of the Provincial’s Ford Taurus shows Juan and Fr. Sam Anthony checking under the hood while Fr. Gregory measures the tire pressure. He is surprised to find the pressure exactly where it should be since he had inflated the tires the day before when they were hot. Father Sam made sure they had every contingency covered withn a gallon of water in the truck in case the radiator heated up, or the windshield needed some spray. They fully expect to be driving into the rains of Hurricane Rita, which is today pouring flood waters back into New Orleans.

The final shot of Thursday morning shows Frs. Gregory and Sam Anthony leaving Marylake in the Taurus only minutes behind the Suburban with the students. They departed at 10:13 am, after a planned departure time of "nine-thirtyish." We wish them well, and certainly enjoyed these refugees unexpected three week visit to our Monastery.