One more Carmelite from New Orleans is found safe: Shelly Thomas. So that’s 20 missing, 9 safe, and 1 dead in New Orleans as of today. Provincial Councillor Gerald Alford, recovering from a triple bypass operation, took refuge from hurricane Rita in Pensacola, Florida. "A bad night, in a bad inn." That is how Saint Teresa of Jesus is said to have defined this earthly life. On his way home to Lafayette, he and his wife Betty dropped by to visit our nuns in Covington who are doing fine. The reports of "starving Carmelite nuns" had been an erroneous rumor.

"Our younger son who stayed behind telephoned us about 1am on the 24th that a tree had been blown down and landed on the back corner of our house in Lafayette. Water had poured in and damaged a chair my wife bought, which I hated... Even she came to lose affection for it because it was really not comfortable to sit in. It was stressful - now knowing exactly what was going on back home. But our son did well in covering the best he could the floor and furnishings inside, and Betty has these wonderful relatives from New Orleans, some of whom we had provided shelter from Katrina, and three of the guys came to Lafayette and covered the damaged area with tarps. Their generous act was a great consolation to me and relieved my already physically aching heart." [Gerald Alford]