Gustav - The Local Scene

Lafourche Parish (where I live) president, Charlotte Randolph, has issued a "mandatory evacuation order". The order does not mean that you must go or they will drag you out of your house. You may stay, but no emergency services will be provided for you. Of course, everyone should evacuate, but this is part "cover our asses" coming from the powers, because I know, and they know, that a number of folks are staying, including my two sons, and the parish authorities will be forced to provide emergency services to those who remain here.

I don't think my sons are wise, but one has three basset hounds, and the other has four cats, so you can see their reasons. Their families won't be with them, just the pets, which I assure you they will not leave behind if they decide to evacuate after all. My son who lives in Houma will come to stay at our house in Thibodaux, which is further away from the Gulf of Mexico. We live in the higher part of Lafourche Parish

In lower Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes, there will be flooding from the storm surge, no matter where Gustav lands, so those folks have already or will soon move out - I hope.

About Gustav

We know little more today than we knew yesterday about where Gustav will make landfall. It's still way out there, and it's moving quite slowly. Yesterday I was a wreck, but today I feel better. The storm will either come our way, or it won't. The prayers, the candles, the votives, the bonfires, and the encouraging words are helping me. I have all of you to thank for that. Thank you, thank you, thank you, my friends out there in Blogland and spread all through the intertubes.

Our Lady Of The Driveway - I Remember Katrina

Thanks to Athenae at First Draft for the photo and the title. She took this picture when she was in New Orleans at the end of March, when a group of us led by FD bloggers, Athenae and Scout Prime, gathered to gut a house, view the destruction, and squeeze in a little fun.

The statue of the Virgin Mary stood in a driveway. The head was broken off, but someone had put it back in place. The photo and the title struck me with such force when I first saw it that I have never forgotten it. The image of the statue of Mary in the driveway - "Mary, full of grace" as Athenae calls her - was the symbol of my destroyed and broken home town, my abandoned city, my beloved New Orleans - always full of grace to me.


Our Lady Of The Driveway

O Mary of the Driveway,
Broken like your city,
Your head lies on the ground.
A sorry sight, a sign,
A sign of devastation
Wrought by wind and water,
Angry blow and raging flow.

A passer-by, one of tender heart,
Sees and stops and mourns your head
Lying there apart,
And gently, gently takes it
And replaces it.
There. Our Lady's whole again.
Or so it seems. Or is it so?

Grandmère Mimi - 5-13-07

I posted the picture and the poem first on May 13, 2007 and then again on the anniversary of Katrina last year. Until I change my mind, I will post the picture and the poem every year on the anniversary of Katrina and THE FEDERAL FLOOD, which, in New Orleans, was not a natural disaster but an ENGINEERING DISASTER. I remember the more than 1800 people who died and all those who loved them. I remember the 275,000 who lost their homes. I remember those who survived, but suffered through horrendous conditions in the days after Katrina. I remember those who have not returned to their home towns, and who want to, but can't find affordable housing. I remember those in Louisiana and Mississippi still struggling to recover and rebuild their homes and their lives.

And now, on the third anniversary of Katrina and the federal flood, here we are watching and waiting to see where a storm named Gustav will make landfall. It's surely not where any of us wanted to be, but it's where we are.

UPDATE: I added to the title of the post to make clear the connection to the anniversary of Katrina and the federal flood.

UPDATE 2: Scout at First Draft has a wonderful pictorial remembrance of Katrina.

For The Latest On Gustav

Instead of loading and reloading pictures, I'll link to the Weather Underground site for information on Gustav. For those of you who are interested, in Text Information, the "Public Advisory" and the "Discussion" sections are helpful. Then, I look at the pictures labeled "Tracking", "5 day forecast", and "Computer models". Scroll down to see the big picture after you click.

I put a link to the site on the sidebar below Of Course I Could Be On Vacation.

Please Pray For Jane R.

From Doxy:

The leftovers of Hurricane Fay did a number on the home of Jane R. from Acts of Hope. I just got a phone message from her saying that a tree fell on her house. Fortunately, she was not home at the time. Her Grace, +Maya Pavlova is safe as well.

Unfortunately, Jane's house is uninhabitable for the foreseeable future. Please keep her in your prayers.

Thank God Jane is safe. Good grief! What next? Lord, have mercy.

May the Lord give comfort, consolation, and the peace that passes understanding to keep the mind and heart of our sister, Jane.

UPDATE: Jane is back online and has a post up.

Updates On Hurricane Gustav

I'm updating the pictures on the Gustav post as they change. The projected path has moved a little to the west, which is better for New Orleans and better for us, too. However, it's still too early to know where it will make landfall. God knows that I don't wish the storm on anyone else. I pray for the whole coastal area, both Louisiana and Texas.

UPDATE: From Paul, the BB:

Gustav Kills 23 In Haiti, DR, New Orleans Prepares
Central Florida News 13|, FL - 1 hour ago
MIAMI -- Gustav stalled offshore Wednesday after landslides and flooding killed 23 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Oil workers began leaving ...

Let us pray for those who lost their lives in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Yes. Let us pray.

You Won't Be Sorry

Please go see Father David Heron's Spot The Difference post. You will be sorry if you don't. I'm thinking of one special friend of mine, who won't want to miss this one. David said that I could steal it, but I thought it would be more gracious to send you over there.

Gustav Begins To Worry Us

The picture above shows where Gustav is now. The picture below is where Gustav is projected to be in five days. It's waaaay too early to project five days ahead. The storm could move east or west of the projected position, but the Weather Bureau must do its best to get information out.

I live about 60 miles SW of New Orleans. However, we are planning what to take and when to leave, should we need to go. If it comes our way, we are told we must go. We are fortunate that we have a farm NW of Baton Rouge with two smallish houses on it. We don't need to search for a place to stay, although we will be crowded in the two houses. If we get to the farm, and the hurricane seems to be heading there, it's easier to move further north from there than from here in Thibodaux or from New Orleans, where my daughter and her family live.



Images from Weather Underground.

UPDATE: The images have been updated to the latest position and forecast as of Thursday, August 28, 2008, 2:00 PM EDT.

"Wake Up America!"

Inspiration to post the video from Rmj at Adventus.

Archbishop Rowan Williams' Further Reflections

The Archbishop of Canterbury's latest letter is at his website. You may read it in its entirety there. I excerpted parts of the letter. The archbishop's words are in italics.

As the proposals for an Anglican Covenant now go forward, it is still possible that some will not be able to agree; there was a clear sense that some sort of covenant will help our identity and cohesion, although the bishops wish to avoid a legalistic or juridical tone.

I don't, because I'm concerned that the Covenant will be used for the purpose of exclusion.

A strong majority of bishops present agreed that moratoria on same-sex blessings and on cross-provincial interventions were necessary, but they were aware of the conscientious difficulties this posed for some, and there needs to be a greater clarity about the exact expectations and what can be realistically implemented. How far the intensified sense of belonging together will help mutual restraint in such matters remains to be seen.

I do not agree. The moratoria have been followed quite long enough.

Many participants believed that the indaba method, while not designed to achieve final decisions, was such a necessary aspect of understanding what the questions might be that they expressed the desire to see the method used more widely – and to continue among themselves the conversations begun in Canterbury.

I agree.

First, there was an overwhelming unity around the need for the Church to play its full part in the worldwide struggle against poverty ignorance and disease. The Millennium Development Goals were repeatedly stressed, and there was universal agreement that both governmental and non-governmental development agencies needed to create more effective partnerships with the churches and to help the churches increase and improve their own capacity to deliver change for the sake of justice.

I agree that the Anglican Communion should, but there's the label of church again. There is no such entity as the world-wide Anglican Church. I believe that he chooses the label "church" quite deliberately, because he says it over and over.

...on the controversial issue of the day regarding human sexuality, there was a very widely-held conviction that premature or unilateral local change was risky and divisive, in spite of the diversity of opinion expressed on specific questions.

Whether the conviction is widely-held or not, I can't say. I suppose it depends on who is counted in. The Episcopal Church must do what it must do. If others consider what we do "risky and divisive", then so be it.

There remains the scandal that a duly elected and consecrated bishop of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, was barred from attendance at Lambeth. His voice was not heard.

I had thought that the Archbishop of Canterbury's main concern (and his continued bashing of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada) had to do with his desire to hold together the Anglican Communion and not have it split on his watch. I think that, indeed, he does not want that to happen, although it seems to me that it has already happened. But I wonder if his primary concern may be for his own Church of England. Folks on both sides of the issue of human sexuality within the Church of England are getting restive. He's trying to straddle that divide, and the actions of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada may be seen by him as encouraging those within his own church to move forward with similar actions. He must also be aware that incursions by foreign bishops into his own territory, similar to those that TEC and ACofC have experienced, may be undertaken. Of course, I'm not inside the archbishop's head, but it seems possible to me that his concern for division within his own church may motivate a good many of his words.

Just my two cents.

UPDATE: From the comments:

Blogger John Bassett said...

We are best bound together by the fewest and loosest ties. If Rowan could understand that, he would preserve the Church more effectively.

To which I answer a great and loud "Amen!"

UPDATE 2: Please read Mark Harris' reflection on the letter at Preludium AND Adrian Worsfold at Pluralist Speaks.