News from the New Orleans-Santa Fe District about Hurricane Katrina: As of September 3rd, all of the Brothers from New Orleans are finally accounted for. It was only on September 2nd that the final six, who had been out of contact since August 29th were located at one of our schools and flown by helicopter to the New Orleans airport where some Brothers met them to take them to the Provincialate in Lafayette.

The Provincialate and retirement community in Lafayette is west of New Orleans. All of the rooms are filled now with the overflow from the New Orleans area. Some of the Brothers are housed in community houses of some of the other religious in the area.

The condition of the schools is still not clear. Saint Paul's School in Covington had a lot of wind damage. It seems that De La Salle in New Orleans and Christian Brothers School in New Orleans have serious water damage. We don’t know yet about Rummel High School in Meterie, since those Brothers got out just before the storm hit. What seems clear is that schools will not be re-opened until after Christmas.

Only now -- and with difficulty because the communications infra-structure is such a disaster (phone lines down, mobile phones not working) -- the location of lay administrators and teachers, of students and families, etc. is little by little starting to come in.

The Visitor has asked that the USA/Toronto Region Office begin to coordinate the attempts of Districts, communities, and schools to come to the assistance of the Brothers and Lasallians in New Orleans. Br. Thomas Johnson, the Brother Regional Director, is coordinating efforts. The Regional web site www.cbconf.org is a good source for up-to-date information. Br. Stephen Tuohy of SECOLI is working with the Regional Office to help with the relief effort.

Any donations that you wish to go to hurricane relief for those in the New Orleans and Santa Fe District can be channelled through the Regional Office at:

Hurricane Fund
Christian Brothers Conference
4351 Garden City Drive
Suite 200
Landover, MD 20785-7225
301-459-9410

We ask all interested parties to make donations payable to “Christian Brothers Conference” with a memo line, or separate note, indicating that it is for the Hurricane Fund.
^{(Br. Donald Johanson from various sources)}

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