Chamber Voice Articles

First Baptist Church opened its arms and hearts to evacuees

On August 29th, the wind blew, the rain came down and a New Orleans woman named Monica fled the rising water with her small family. She found her way to the First Baptist Church in Donaldsonville and found a whole new family.

On, August 30, the folks at First Baptist Church of Donaldsonville agreed that they needed to help evacuees from the New Orleans area. Racheal Wells, the shelter’s director, and church member Eric LeBlanc, who speaks fluent Spanish, went to the Lamar Dixon Center. There they found over 1000 evacuees who were mostly in a state of shock and even in agony not knowing what had happened to their homes, their possessions or even their friends. The world they knew even twenty four hours ago was gone. What struck Racheal and Eric as they watched these poor people, was how many women were sitting idle…some even rocking back and forth trying to find some comfort in a horrible situation. This was to be the first of many trips to Lamar Dixon where they met many people who decided to shelter at the church in Donaldsonville. The First Baptist Church soon became a safe haven in the wake of the storm.

What the evacuees needed were simple things…a bath, food, a phone, and a clean dry place to lay their heads. Church members created small apartments, each with mattresses, clean sheets, and real pillows, in the Sunday school rooms. The sheets probably weren’t matching sets but they were clean and comfortable. Over 150 people actually rotated in and out of these humble apartments and Racheal soon realized that the idle hands weren’t helping the hopes and attitudes of the evacuees that were staying there.

Although the First Baptist Church was not a registered evacuation center, the Red Cross discovered that the church was really helping people and so the national organization came to the rescue. The Red Cross, Donaldsonville citizens, and local organizations and businesses such as the VFW-Post 3766, Prevost Memorial Hospital, CF Industires and the First United Methodist Church helped with food and supplies. All of a sudden folks were in the kitchen of the First Baptist Church cooking up some of the best food anyone could imagine. Everything from big pots of jambalaya, red beans and rice, stewed turkey necks, fried catfish and shrimp, and even chitllin’s! They didn’t want food that was already cooked and by someone else…they wanted their own down home food cooked by their own hands.

For a lot of evacuees, Donaldsonville was just what they needed. And for one Red Cross volunteer it’s going to become home! Carl Green of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was the church’s first volunteer relief worker and he fell in love with this little town and its people. Carl is getting married soon and he and his bride will be moving to Donaldsonville.

A few weeks ago, Racheal received a letter from Monica, the New Orleans evacuee. Monica and her little family had to relocate to Houston after her home in New Orleans was slated for demolition. In her letter, Monica told Racheal that she and her children were “homesick” for their new church family in Donaldsonville. They don't like Houston much...many people haven't been friendly to them there. Monica has had trouble finding a job in Houston and as soon as she can, she'll be moving back to Louisiana and her new hometown of Donaldsonville.

Donaldsonville Bicentennial 1806 - 2006
Bank of Donaldsonville Circa 1892

An editorial by Kirk P. Landry, Contributing Historian

In Celebration of the Bicentennial of Donaldsonville
A Chronology of Donaldsonville, Part 3

140 women with blue umbrellas on a mission

We all love New Orleans and if we can’t rebuild it, we may as well turn off the lights in the surrounding parishes”, according to Carol LeBlanc of Houma. Carol is a member of Women of the Storm, a grassroots organization of women activists from across south Louisiana. The next time you need to get the attention of the members of Congress, you might want to get some advice from these women. Under the direction of founder Anne Milling of New Orleans, the Women of the Storm took one look at the devastation in New Orleans and south Louisiana and knew they had to do something to help. They also knew they’d have to go to the top…right to the proverbial “horse’s mouth”. The Women of the Storm packed their blue umbrellas (yes they really carry blue umbrellas to represent all of the blue tarps that cover so many roofs in Louisiana) and headed to Washington DC to meet with every member of Congress.

Prior to the arrival of 140 blue umbrellas “on the mall” in Washington, only 55 members of the House of Representatives and 30 members of the Senate had visited south Louisiana since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the coast. That’s only 85 out of a total of 533 Senators and Representatives! A mere 13% of the Representatives and only 30% of the Senators and this was the single most horrific natural disaster in United States history.

The Women of the Storm knew that no one could possibly understand how Louisiana had been affected until they saw it for themselves. And if they didn’t understand it how could they possibly know or care what Louisiana would need to recover?

So with umbrellas in hand and four speaking points in their heads, the Women of the Storm each met with four Congressmen to convince them not to forget Louisiana and the devastation of our state. We would need money and plenty of support to rebuild.

Carol was paired with Jennifer Fallon of New Orleans. They met with Reps. Tanner (D-Tennessee), Ruppersberger (D-Maryland), Stark (D-California), and Ryan (R-Kansas), or their aides. In each case, Carol said that she and Jennifer talked about four main points. First that it was critical that Louisiana receive 50% of the oil revenues from Louisiana offshore drilling, which is what the other coastal states receive, to help with rebuilding the state. Secondly that additional funding was desperately needed to enhance the levees all across the state. Thirdly to finally fully fund coastal restoration and to make sure they understood why it is so important to hurricane protection. (We need coastal lands to break the force of a hurricane as it comes on shore.) And last but not least, they wanted Congress to support the “Baker Bill” which would provide funding for rebuilding homes in the hurricane ravaged areas. Carol said that the four Representatives (or staff) they visited were very receptive and although they had not visited Louisiana since the storms, they seemed aware of the degree of devastation.

The Women of the Storm have raised enough money to fund their trip to Washington and also to pay for Congressional members to visit Louisiana and see the devastation for themselves. The organization is far from finished with their mission as they continue to raise funds for other needs related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. On February 17th at the famous New Orleans restaurant, Antoine’s, the Women of the Storm helped sponsor The Blue Tarp Fashion Show and Luncheon. The proceeds went to benefit the America’s Wetland Foundation and the Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation.