It was 20 years ago this month when monster storm Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and thousands of other cities and towns across the region along the Gulf Coast. Many who experienced the disaster firsthand say they will never forget the date of August 29, 2005, and now think of life as “before and after Katrina.”
Today, the city of New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA) has requested churches across the community to offer prayers of thanks and gratitude during their Sunday services on Aug. 24, to commemorate the anniversary. The Emotional and Spiritual Care Team of the UCC has created a litany for churches to use on that date, to pray for the city of New Orleans and all of those who were affected by this storm throughout the region.
One of the most deadly hurricanes in United States history, and the most destructive, Katrina claimed 1,833 lives, and caused about $108 billion in total property damage, while displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Floodwaters lingered for weeks from Texas to Mississippi to Florida, with water reaching as far as 12 miles inland.
Just one small group of those responsible for helping to build back the region. The UCC had thousands of volunteers in the course of six years of ministry in New Orleans. (Photo courtesy of Rev. Alan Coe)
Remembering how the UCC helped the region
As the anniversary approaches, the United Church of Christ is remembering the ways the denomination sprung into action and helped the region recover. Through UCC Disaster Ministries, almost 15,000 people volunteered for the recovery effort across the Gulf, working a total of over 400,000 hours to clean out almost 850 houses and rebuild over 100 homes. Over $6 million was sent to the Gulf Coast for relief from the UCC.
There was no phone or email communication in the region following Hurricane Katrina, and this was the message left at Back Bay Mission for those who stopped in to check on things. (Photo courtesy of Rev. Shari Prestemon)
‘We didn’t have a paper clip’
At the time Katrina hit, the Rev. Shari Prestemon, UCC Associate General Minister, and co-executive of Global Ministries, was the executive director of Back Bay Mission in Mississippi. “Of our seven buildings, only one was salvageable in the end,” said Prestemon. “We didn’t have a paper clip, and the community was looking to us to help them recover in every possible way. Though there was indescribable amount of need all around us, we also had to attend to our own recovery as an organization. And though we lost everything, we never lost our mission.”
Prestemon said through the generosity of UCC donors around the country, Back Bay Mission never had to take a loan. “We didn’t just rebuild exactly the way it was before Katrina. We reimagined the whole campus, and between the federal support, insurance and those donations, we came back. The UCC loved Back Bay Mission back to life.”
Destruction in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. This was the last area to recover after the levee break. (Photo courtesy of Rev. Alan Coe)
Helping to rebuild an American city
Twenty years ago, the Rev. Alan Coe was living in Texas and served as the disaster coordinator for the South Central Conference, which covered Texas, Louisiana and a bit of South Mississippi, including Back Bay Mission. “They were opening up a defunct mall in San Antonio, to house storm survivors so I volunteered there as a chaplain for a while. Hundreds of people were coming in who had been rescued off their rooftops in New Orleans and across the region. But eventually I was asked to move to New Orleans to head up the UCC disaster recovery there,” said Coe. “And I thought, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to help rebuild an American city, so I started there officially on November 1, 2005.”
Volunteers put a new roof on a house following Katrina’s destruction. (Photo courtesy of Rev. Alan Coe)
Coe said they relied on volunteers to come in and help, and thanks to a constant rotation of people from the UCC from 46 states and eight countries, they were able to clean out hundreds of homes and rebuild 114. It was there in NOLA he met Dale Bonds, a member of a New Orleans UCC church that had been devastated. Bonds became the team’s finance person and took care of all the books, and tracked all the spending — which included many shopping trips for tools and supplies. “It was almost like a little business we had going, a small construction company,” said Coe.
Rev. Alan Coe answered the call to lead the UCC reconstruction in NOLA following Katrina. He is now retired.
Hurricane Katrina left the nine UCC congregations in New Orleans in various stages of devastation, but most especially Central Congregational UCC, a historically African American church that was unusable after it flooded with two feet of water. Central Congregational began worshipping at nearby St. Matthew UCC, which was founded by German immigrants and had suffered very little damage in the storm. Gradually, the two churches grew closer, and years later they merged and became Central St. Matthew UCC.
Two churches become one
Dale Bonds attended Central Congregational in 2005, and was president of the church. She said their building suffered damage from termites over the years, and had asked St. Matthew if they could worship in their fellowship hall while the floors were being repaired. “We had worshipped there just one Sunday,” shared Bonds, “and the next Sunday Katrina happened.
It was a natural flow for all to congregate at St. Matthew moving forward.
“Eventually we formed a committee to investigate merging the congregations. It was a courtship that went on for quite a while,” Bonds remembers. “I think what helped some of us through this time was volunteering in the disaster ministry office for the years that followed.
Dale Bonds, a member of Central St. Matthew UCC, said today it’s bittersweet to remember the trail of heartache left behind when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, but she is thankful for the bright spots.
Today Bonds is still living in the home that experienced eight feet of water during the massive storm. She is a deacon and member of the Central St. Matthew choir. She reflected on this 20th anniversary of Katrina. “It’s a bittersweet time,” Bonds said. “We lost so many people. I was naive when I came back thinking that the city would be restored in a certain amount of time. It’s 20 years later and there’s still devastation in parts of the city. But there are bright spots, and this is home.”
John Etter was on the board of trustees of St. Matthew in 2005.
Meanwhile, John Etter was on the board of trustees of St. Matthew back then, living in the section of the city by Tulane University. With news of the coming storm, he and his wife loaded their Jeep Cherokee with three days’ worth of clothing and supplies, as well as their dog and three cats. They evacuated on Sunday morning, thinking they were going to Houston, but they found roads leading there were already shut down. So they made their way to Palestine, Texas instead, a little town outside of Dallas. When they turned on the television the next morning and saw the helicopter footage of their neighborhood, they realized they had lost everything once the levees broke.
The UCC’s Beecher Memorial Church sustained extensive damage from Katrina. The first day a group went into Beecher to start the clean out was early January of 2006. The mold had made it up to the ceiling by then. Not much was salvageable from the church that had five feet of water in it. A volunteer displays a ruined Bible. (Photo courtesy of Rev. Alan Coe)
Etter was able to get back into New Orleans two weeks later as part of a group of business owners who were escorted into the ruined city past the National Guard barricades. He found his home covered in mold. He and his wife began going back into the city every couple of weeks with contractors to rebuild their home, and they attended worship services at the now combined Central and St. Matthew UCC, where the two pastors took turns giving sermons on Sundays. Etter feels this combining of churches wouldn’t have happened without Katrina, and it was a strange blessing in many ways.
‘The spirit was with us’
“It felt the spirit was with us in bringing us together,” he said. “Today we are one of the few really multiracial UCC churches. We’ve had this discussion with our pastors the past few months, that those of us who were here before Katrina kind of have that stamped on us. The newer people often don’t know what we’re talking about fully — the angst we sometimes feel.”
One of the many home dedications following reconstruction of residences in New Orleans. (Photo courtesy of Rev. Alan Coe)
He continued about the merger, “Katrina allowed these two churches that were somewhat stale, perhaps, and become more lively, to move forward in good ways theologically and certainly hymn-wise! And also, I think it was part of our journey to becoming Open & Affirming. The spirit was at work in what we were doing. We became stronger together.”
Katrina changed everything
At the National Setting of the UCC in Cleveland, Ohio, Mary Schaller Blaufuss was the executive for Volunteer Ministries, and had just began her tenure in January of 2005. She said Katrina changed everything. “It shaped the way the UCC did domestic volunteer ministries. Previous to the hurricane we did ad hoc responses. But after Katrina we utilized Partners in Service to place people with certain skill sets in areas to help rebuild the region. This centralized and ongoing communication meant we could have more of an impact on recovery. We have used that system going forward to help with our disaster response around the country.”
The Partners in Service volunteers were a key part of the recovery efforts working as crew leaders in the field or office. Pictured, top row left to right: Florence Copolla, John Small, Jim Ditlzler, Sarah McAllister, Doug Moore, Linda Ditzler, Mary Schaller Blaufuss;Middle row: Judy Moore, Betzi Yungclas, Tom Gorham, Dale Bonds;Bottom row: Rev. Alan Coe, Tim Fonderlin.
Blaufuss has written a book on the theology of disaster response called Joining God in the Thin Places. She recalled the feeling in the wake of Katrina. “In part, people wanted to make up for the gaps we witnessed in our government. In part, the media coverage had made the event part of our national consciousness. Like people in New Orleans and Mississippi, to this day, I speak of life before and life after Katrina as very different eras and realities.”
Mary Schaller Blaufuss served as executive for Volunteer Ministries at the UCC National Setting when Katrina hit.
Blaufuss wrote a book about the theology of disaster response.
“Accompanying amazing people doing amazing things became my personal mantra,” writes Blaufuss in her book. “The more I interact with survivors of disaster and with the systems and relationships of recovery, the more I am convinced of the need to pay attention to who God is in the disaster itself and in the recovery. I am encouraged to accompany survivors in reestablishing a framework of meaning and identity for themselves. And I believe we must impact the shape and systems of recovery for the sake of long-term flourishing of communities.”
Blaufuss’ book takes a deeper look at issues of race, affordable housing, and disaster recovery in the midst of the covenant of compassion. She writes, “Hurricane Katrina…blew open the cover of embedded racism and inequality in those places. The UCC’s National Setting felt compelled to make a strong statement.”
Hope continues to bloom
As Aug. 29 approaches, the UCC is asking churches around the country to continue to pray for those who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. A litany has been created by the Emotional and Spiritual Care Team of the United Church of Christ for use on Sunday, Aug. 24.
The litany is prefaced by these words:
As we pause today to recognize the 20th anniversary of this disaster, we acknowledge the trauma and devastation that was experienced throughout the Gulf Coast region. We remember the 1,833 lives lost, and the tens of thousands who were also injured in body, mind, and soul as many were unable to evacuate. Communities were destroyed, and only some were rebuilt. We witnessed the realities of racism and classism in the response to this storm, and recognize that our society still wrestles with these challenges today.
Churches can access the full litany HERE.
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