Thirteen Years

Pictures and stories at a page I created in the aftermath of the storm:   http://www.angelfire.com/la3/judyb/katrina.html

Obama's Katrina????

Rebirth on Bayou Liberty

Almost seven years after it was swamped by Katrina, St. Genevieve Catholic Church on Bayou Liberty has been rebuilt. I pass the church on my daily commute, so I watched in January 2007 as they demolished the old church , built in 1958. I have followed and chronicled her rebirth for the past five years .

On January 15, 2012 St. Genevieve opened to her parishoners. It was a beautiful thing to witness.

This is what she looked like before Katrina

During the groundbreaking in October of 2010, parishioners were asked to place a small amount of dirt from their home into the groundbreaking hole in celebration of their unity.

The doors to the church were donated by Dr. John Breaux and were produced in Honduras. They depict the history of the parish from the time it was a mission until the present new church.

In 1852, a brick chapel was built by Mrs. Anatole Cousin on land she donated.

In 1914, Father Francis Balay renovated the old church and rededicated it

In 1950s another Bayou Liberty Church - St. Linus - was merged with St. Genevieve

In 1958, a new church building was built and dedicated Dec. 28 by Reverend Joseph Rummel.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed the church. Immediately following the storm, Mass was celebrated under an oak tree for several weeks and then in the parish hall.

In 2011, the new church was completed!

 

From watching this steeple lying on the ground during deconstruction of the old church,

 

It was such a good feeling to see the old steeple rising toward the heavens again

The original stained glass windows are used in the new church (photo by Slidell Sentry News)

The altar looks out over Bayou Liberty

The old Chapel is shown here after the church was razed

And now the Chapel is once again united with the church

After Katrina, St. Genevieve's pastor is quoted as saying: "The church is not the building, but the people, we are the church."
~ Reverend Roel Lungay

I salute the strength and faith parishioners of St. Genevieve and congratulate them on this long-time coming occasion.

Cat Island - the heartbreak continues

I have been lucky in friending Plaquemines Parish P.J. Hahn, Director of Coastal Zone Management on facebook and following his photography. I did so during the oilspill of 2010, knowing he would provide local, honest first-person reporting of an incident that was censored by BP, the Coast Guard and our government.

I can't watch the repeats of the footage from the BP Oilspill. The carnage just makes me ill in the same way the the replay of the explosion of Challenger in 1986. But I will never forget those dark periods in our history.

I remember that I had jury duty during one of the first weeks of the spill and I absent-mindedly chose the book Bayou Farewell, published in 2004 and authored by Mike Tidwell . This book basically predicted a Katrina experience. Of course a lot of books and articles were floating around during the early 21st century regarding the perfect storm that would be called Katrina. In the book Tidwell visited and worked with the heart and soul of southern Louisiana: the fisherpeople. The one thing that was repeated over and over by these hard working folks was the loss of our coastal wetlands and the speed in which it is happening.

The BP poisoning of the Gulf Coast is still having its effects from Louisiana to Florida, 20 months later. Just this week P.J. Hahn took a boat ride out to Cat Island in Barataria Bay to assess its health. It turned out to be extremely disappointing, as evidenced by P.J.'s pictures below:




The wildlife on the way to Cat Island looks healthy.


in Barataria Bay outside of Bay Jimmy


Something about seeing pelicans in flight makes me smile.

However, once they reached the island itself I'm sure their hearts dropped. Check out these pictures:





The pelicans and other birds depend on mangroves to lay their eggs.



Not a lot of eggs can be laid here.






According to PJ 'they were mangrove trees that are critical for the pelicans to nest. The oil spill hit this island particularly hard and I’ve been trying to document the loss so we can try and rebuild the island. Before the oil spill, this island supported hundreds of thousands of various birds. This spring it will probably not be able to support a couple hundred nesting birds."


These photos were all taken on December 22, 2011.





Again, quoting PJ ". It's been so tough, on so many fronts. Going out and seeing the effects on the fish and wildlife......listening to fears from the locals and their concern for their future, it's been a stressful several years!"

When I asked whether BP was setting aside money for the island's restoration here is the answer:
"BP is trying to get out of all of this. They are sponsoring commercials that basically is trying to scam the public into thinking the Gulf is now fixed and that there is nothing wrong with the seafood..........and unfortunately, it seems to be working."

Fun with Food and Drink

I was reading some of my favorite blogs on Friday evening when I came across this post from NOLA Defender blog . Free admission to several Museums in the city? Sounds like us! We looked thru the list and chose a little-known museum located on the Riverwalk: The Southern Food & Beverage Museum , just past the food court on Level C.



The museum is full of well thought out displays and the attention to detail keeps the visitor looking at everything to catch those details.

Leah Chase is featured in the main area of the museum.






There's a section devoted to methods of cooking food: stoves, barbecue pits......




and even a stove with a computer attached to it for multi-tasking cooks.






One of the first things that caught my eye was the Katrina Deli.














This caught my eye in the section devoted to rice: a poster from the upcoming International Rice Festival in Crowley, Louisiana .


I wonder how many people remember the little song about Mahatma and Water Maid rice?


I found the sugar section of the museum fascinating. I have passed hundreds of those huge trucks carrying sugarcane in the Raceland/Thibodaux area in the years that my daughter has attended Nicholls State, but I never realized how complex refining sugar could be.


This beautiful cake was created by Chef George Cook, pastry chef at the IP Casino in Biloxi, demonstrating food as art.


There's a section devoted to red beans and rice.


Red beans and rice as clothing?




The Absinthe gallery takes up quite a bit of space in the museum.










This bar is from Bruning's Restaurant, formerly of the West End.



Here are some other scenes from the museum:





















I could do a whole post on the Cocktail section of the museum, there is so much in there.

There is a section where visitors can leave a message about their impression of the museum.


I found this note from a visitor who was tired of hearing "When the Saints Go Marching In" was amusing.

I highly recommend a visit to the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. Tickets are only $10 for adults ($8 for AAA members). To find out more about what exhibits are taking place at the Museum, check out this link.