Betsy, Katrina and Ida: A tale of three hurricanes

Above: New Orleans Mayor Victor Schiro talks to Marianite Sisters Gregory Trosclair and Leocadie Chauvin about their duties as Red Cross shelter volunteers in the aftermath of Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Women religious were deployed at various shelters to help families with tasks such as entertaining their children and folding clothes, and by offering prayer and counsel to evacuees. (Clarion Herald file photo by Frank H. Methe III; photo of Marianite Sister Rochelle Perrier – making coffee for Hurricane Ida evacuees at St. Joseph Abbey’s Christian Life Center – courtesy of the Marianite Sisters)

By Sister Judy Gomila, M.S.C
Guest columnist

Thanks to Hurricane Ida, my fellow Marianite sisters – and other local women religious “of a certain age” – can look back on how three major storms called them to serve in some unexpected ways.

I was a 25-year-old “temporary professed” sister teaching at Incarnate Word Elementary School (in New Orleans’ Carrollton neighborhood) when Hurricane Betsy hit in 1965.

Philip Hannan, the newly appointed archbishop of New Orleans, mobilized the religious sisters of various congregations to help out at area shelters as Red Cross volunteers. Sisters worked wherever they were assigned, and fledgling postulants and novices were also active in the relief work.

Needless to say, the sisters had few problems to handle and lots of compassion to share with the distraught people. At the Naval base in Algiers, the shelter to which I was deployed, I have vivid memories of calming folks, playing games with the kids, preparing PB&J sammies, folding laundry and providing basic first aid (ah, the instant comfort of putting on a simple Band-Aid!).

About three weeks after Betsy’s landfall, when the floodwaters had receded, members of our local Marianite community – called to action by our superior, Sister Immaculata Paisant – armed themselves with buckets, mops, bleach and trash bags to clean the family homes of the two sisters who had seen the most damage: my family’s home on Alvar Street in the 9th Ward and the Chalmette home of another sister.

Katrina dethrones Betsy

Until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Betsy would hold sway as the “benchmark” natural disaster in the collective memory of generations of women religious and residents of the New Orleans area.

With devastation predicted throughout the city and a mandatory evacuation issued, all the sisters who were able to drive packed their cars with our senior sisters and got them to safety at St. Joseph Abbey. Other religious congregations also sought shelter there, with older sisters filling some 40 bedrooms and younger sisters sleeping on mattresses on the floor.

When a fallen tree disabled a gas line, we had to re-evacuate to our convents in central and north Louisiana. I was moved to Port Allen, Louisiana, where Marianite Sisters Joel Miller and Marie Emma Noel graciously took in eight Marianites at their convent in Holy Family Parish. The sisters stayed in Port Allen until January 2006 and were active in the parish and school.

Some of us were able to work in shelters in the greater Baton Rouge area. Once or twice a week, Father Wayne Paysse, now the pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Slidell, celebrated Mass at the shelters where Marianite Sister Jane Dardenne and I served as weary volunteer “house mothers.”

The melodious song, “Bambelela” (“Never Give Up”), by Marty Haugen, became our “on demand” recessional. It was the rallying cry and anthem that kept us going, so when a different recessional was played at one of the Masses, we almost had a mutiny on our hands! “Bambelela” was swiftly reinstituted.

Abbey opens doors again

Now, in Hurricane Ida – at age 81 – I am one of the “senior sisters” who enjoyed, with several other Marianites, the hospitality of St. Joseph Abbey’s Christian Life Center (CLC) beginning Aug. 31. Loss of power, fallen trees and no water at our Covington house found us armed with a few days of clothing and a handful of items from our melting freezers – pantry staples like peanut butter, crackers, tuna and one orphaned avocado. We were welcomed at the CLC and found solace in Mass with the monks and in our daily interactions with one another, the staff and other evacuees.

From the blessing of her rocking chair on the CLC’s front porch, Sister Ann Lacour, our congregational leader, used her mobile phone and the abbey’s internet connection to update and gather news from Marianites in the USA, Africa, France and Ireland. Among her many duties, Sister Rochelle Perrier took on a very important one: She made the coffee for the evacuees every morning at 5 a.m.!

Marianite Sister Sue Pablovich joined us for supper a few evenings. By day, she was a caregiver for Marianite Sister Gretchen Dysart, who had recently been moved to Chateau de Notre Dame for respite care.

Sister Gretchen went home to God on Sept. 6, her final ministries including taking care of the flowers at the Archdiocesan Retreat Center and helping the faithful unpack “Laudato si,” Pope Francis’ encyclical calling all to take better care of our earthly home.

Another of our sisters passed away during the “Ida Daze” – Sister Mary Murray, an Irish-born Marianite sister and former pastoral assistant based in Opelousas. Sister Mary, who had such a lovely spirituality and wry sense of humor, taught me that humor and holiness definitely can go hand in hand.

Rest in peace, dear sis-tahs!

Sister Judy Gomila, director of communications for the Marianites, is a member of the Clarion Herald’s board of directors. She resides at the Marianites’ Northshore Congregational Center. She can be reached by email at judymarianite@gmail.com.