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We have just completed our first day of work after our return. We spent most of the day at Lakeshore Baptist Church where we demolitioned the remenants of their kitchen that was hit by high winds and gutted out a small house that got about a foot of water in it. Later in the day we went to Mr. Dave’s house to put up a blue tarp on his roof since he got some damage to the back corner of his house.
What a privilege to serve others in the midst of difficult times.
For now you may follow our work back at our Homeland Missions site until our next evacuation.
Thank you to everyone who has called, prayed, commented here, and taken an interest in our work. May the Lord bless you and keep you.
Up the bayonets!
We just got back from our exodus. A three hour car ride through the back roads and rural Mississippi highways was the perfect minority route to take. One of our evacuees went back home to Michigan (he was visiting us at the time that Gustav arrived) leaving us in the minus; but we managed to cram, jam, and push everything into our available space.
Shortly after leaving Laurel the rain nailed us making it difficult to see but the Lord was gracious and it soon dissipated into manageable sprinkles.
I-59 was backed up all the way to Pearl River and the grocery stores are a madhouse resembling a massive scavenger hunt where all of your neighbors are attempting to win the grand title. When we arrived home we were blessed to find John and Steve working on clearing off our roof and picking up debris from around our property. Ray and Fran also came by earlier to tend to our refrigerator and pool -more testimony of the Body working on behalf of the parts.
We are about to grill up some hotdogs to feed our eight hungry children but we have no condiments, no buns, and no cheese. So we’ll eat gorilla-style till we leave for the church in a few hours for a meal made of various foods that need to be cooked since they were on ice for a day or so.
The local SGF body is ready to go out and serve the wounded area. Keep praying for us friends.
Filed under: Diary update, Hurricane Gustav, Hurricane Ike, Reflections and Thoughts | Tags: Evacuation return, homeland missions, Hurricane Gustav, Hurricane Ike
Charles and Ashley, my family, and my sister-n-law and her children are staying here another night due to uncertainties with our electricity. The Busby’s home is still not powered up yet and one of our church families is bunking in the church for the evening hoping that tomorrow will bring electrical repairs to their neighborhood.
So far the church has only received minor damage from the wind with a downed tree on the property and some vinyl siding being ripped from the relief center building, I’m sure about our roofs at this point. We will check them out tomorrow.
All parishes are now opened and in some towns the grocery lines are insanely long. My brother stayed behind (due to his work requirements) and said that in Metairie the line for Rouse’s supermarket wrapped around the building and into the street!
We’re monitoring Mr. Ike and Josephine at present as Hanna slides along the east coast. At present we are gathering up information from our fellow churches and NDRI about area needs in cleanup and repairs. Stayed tuned for more details on how you can help out as well. Assuming we have no more storms we will be switching our communique to www.SGHM.org for rebuilding and debris removal assistance.
What a unique and incredible ministry the Lord has given us here in Slidell to be a hub for relief work in a storm threatened area. We pray that God will use these threats and disasters and storms and conditions to bring lost men to their knees understanding their hopeless state before His power and majesty. We thank each and every one of you who have commented here on our blog and who have called us via phone and written emails to us. Your friendship and prayers are a great encouragement to us.
Keep praying that we put the Word of Christ first as we minister to healing and broken hearts.
To Him alone be the glory for anything good that we may do. Amen.
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Parish President Kevin Davis has lifted the no-entry ban on the parish, but some areas may or may not have electricity and other services. So we will be talking with our friend and Homeland Missions’ construction advisor Elmer Stretz who is already in Slidell to see what conditions are back at the church.
We have no idea how long the traffic will be but we have an alternate route back that includes a few backroads which we feel will take us home relatively fast.
This has been a great time of testing and unification as we have worked together under His providence and care.
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It’s 9:00 a.m. and everyone is safe. It is a joy to be able to accept the provision of shelter. Laurel is under tornado watch as the remnants of the Swede shower the already wet pavements. This morning we cooked up loaves of french toast while the guys began to challenge each other to a small Halo tourney. Ray and Fran exited their travel trailer as the winds picked up and the sirens went off while Laura, Michelle, and Ashley went to visit some of our ADBC friends in their homes. There are a few leaks in the roof here that have apparently plagued the facility for years that have been exacerbated by the continual rain and wind.
School is cancelled so we can stay in the fellowship another day without having to pack up our cots and sleeping mats. Last night we surveyed our food to see what we have in the ice chests that might need to be cooked before it spoils and made menus accordingly. We have saved ourselves hundreds of dollars in lodging and meal costs by putting this evacuation plan together. We are extremely thankful for this church’s willingness to accomodate us. And I am grateful for our congregation’s diligence in working hard to make our time away a good experience. The Lord always gives us a context to exercise our new selves.
Back home the damage is being assessed and the utilities are being repaired. Here are a few tidbits from the news:
- Storm surge averaged 6 to 7 feet across most of the Lake Pontchartrain shoreline in St. Tammany, perhaps slightly higher in the Mandeville and Madisonville areas
- About 45,000 households in the parish were left without power
- Assessment teams from utility companies and St. Tammany Parish will head out this morning to evaluate the damage throughout the parish, and a decision on when residents can return could be made by mid-day
So, the parish won’t allow us back in until tomorrow according to the news. We wait.
Waiting around in a school building with broken routines can sometimes make you stir crazy. It has been raining all day long with some wind and tornado warnings but nothing much to report. I actually got to take a nice nap.
The kids are playing games, mock-school, and chasing each other around in high-pitched delight. We’ve had good conversations and teaching times and everyone has pitched in to help and maintain order. Pastors Jerry and Dennis and Mark Morgan came by again to check on us and to spend some time in fellowship. The leaders here have bee most gracious.
Now we are antsy to get back, but we are waiting to see what tomorrow brings. We will be here until at least Tuesday and hope to leave after lunch.
We are going to call a few friends in the area who stayed behind to see what the wind damage looks like and to get a frontline report. More later.
From a report by St. Tammany Parish officials as of noon today:
We have wide spread power power outages across the parish. As the winds pick up speed we are experiencing more trees and power lines down. The water is rising along Highway 90 and Highway 433 at the Rigolets but not beyond expected levels. We are continuing to monitor this closely. As of noon, the water gauge at the I-10 Twin Spans was averaging 4 feet above sea level, with wave action above that level.
So far, the major problems appear to be downed trees and power outages. We have a report of water in the Eden Isles area to dock level, well below streets & houses.
Slidell residents shouldn’t return home yet to give crews time to begin repairing power lines, as well as the city’s sewage treatment plant, which lost power and then failed because the back-up generator did not work, Mayor Ben Morris said late Monday afternoon.
Filed under: Diary update, Hurricane Gustav, Organizational Observations, Reflections and Thoughts | Tags: evacuations, homeland missions, hurricane, Hurricane Gustav, new orleans evacuation
I woke up at 8:15 a.m. and can’t sleep. It is raining outside and I’m in the book shipping room of Audubon Press here at ADBC using their internet connection on a desktop station and thinking of two things- what is the damage happening back home and in the region, and wondering just how many of my friends would be drooling about now if they saw all these books and learning materials. But I digress.
I’m looking at the news and websites online and apparently Mr. Gustav decided to calm down a bit and is now following the NHC (National Hurricane Center) projected path of NNW while balancing between being a Cat 2 (winds 96-110 mph) and a Cat 3 (winds 111-130 mph) storm. This still puts the storm surges at between 8 – 12 ft. Land fall is going to be close to Morgan City, LA bringing the Swede just south of New Orleans unlike the wonderful prediction of our regional madman Mayor Ray “Chocolate City” Nagin’s predictions of a 900 mile footprinted hurricane of the century. Pray for Nagin for I think that my dog Napoleon has more sense.
The worst of the storm will be south of New Orleans with wind gusts in the city reaching hurricane force (74-90+) between 8 AM and 4 PM. Farther south winds should top 100 + mph for many hours with the storm surge reaching 12-18′ west of the Mississippi river. East of the river the surge should be no worse than 8-12′ with Lake Ponchartrain rising 5-8 feet which should push water over the seawall on the Mandeville lakefront, but nothing like Katrina.
Hurricane force winds will persist for the next 8 hours while tropical storm force winds will persist for the next 16 to 20 hours. Feeder bands continue to provide heavy rainfall and the threat of tornadoes is in effect across Southeast Louisiana till 4pm this afternoon. A flash flood watch is also in effect for the area until Tuesday morning.
Everyone slept well it seems and are beginning to walk around with post-zombie hair and requests for dark coffee and email access. Normalcy ensues.
For now we still wait and see and are grateful that we implemented an evacuation plan two years ago. Our first priority when things settle is to examine that plan, get suggestions, and tweak it so that we can be as efficient and as organized as possible when we have to leave the next time. With an eye glancing towards Hanna. Peace.
Filed under: Diary update, Hurricane Gustav, Organizational Observations, Reflections and Thoughts | Tags: Audubon Drive Bible Church, evacuations, Hurricane Gustav, new orleans evacuation
We have all made it safe and sound after over 6 hours on the road. This trip would normally take about two, but for some unknown reason the Mississippi government decided to end the contra-flow interstate on Hwy 59 about 1.5 miles south of the Popularville exit. This is completely ridiculous and caused major headaches and delays. The double contra-flow should be allowed to stay open till at least Hattiesburg. I hope they see the sense in this and make changes at some point.
We had many other challenges today including some broken airconditioners in our cars, a non-working tail light on a travel trailer that caused a van fire and breakdown delay. But we persevered and stayed steady and made it to Laurel in about three phases.
We are sleeping in their fellowship hall and in a few classrooms at their school and are very grateful for their hospitality and kindness to us. Mark and Alan Morgan and their wives came by to bring us food and Dennis Ashley and his family were there to instruct and feed. Clark Lowery and his family allowed us to take showers at their home and others brought us dessert and smiles. Once again the body of Christ in action.
We are all tucked in and ready for the evening and morning and coming storm. We are watching the TV and praying. He still looks quite mean and the storm surge levels make us nervous.
We want to thank all of your who have been and are praying for us.
Hold fast and stand firm.
Filed under: Diary update, Hurricane Gustav | Tags: Evacuation, Hurricane Gustav, new orleans evacuation
John called at 2:00 a.m. letting us know that the first group of escapees made it safely to Laurel, MS. We got up at daylight and are busily tending to my property, securing any object that may become a projectile.
Parish President Ken Davis called for a mandatory evacuation along with just about everyone else.
We need to fix Ray’s travel trailer lights and pack up 8 kids, 2 dogs, and ourselves.
Looks like Gustav calmed down a bit and is now a category 3. We’ll see.
