The Task of Rebuilding

CNS runs an interview with the superintendent of schools in the Biloxi Diocese:

Students from schools that are not immediately repairable will most likely be bused to other Catholic schools, Ladner said, but he also said the schools currently lacked the funding needed to do that. Hundreds of people willing to either send supplies or volunteer have recently contacted him, but what he really needed was a group to sponsor a school bus for a year for some of the displaced students.

Another big issue is teacher salaries. Sacred Heart Elementary School in D'Iberville, just outside Biloxi, was submerged under 10 feet of water during the storm and will not be ready to open until at least January, but as he pointed out, "Teachers still need to get paid."

Father Bob Higginbotham, pastor of Sacred Heart, told CNS Sept. 9 that he did not know how many of the students were even still in the area. "So many people are relocating," he said, adding that if the number of returning students is low they might have to go to another Catholic school in the area.

He said he has met with his teachers and they were trying to get in touch with the students in their classes. For now, his parishioners are scattered and the church is damaged. He has been celebrating Sunday Masses at the diocesan pastoral center and a local Methodist church.

"So many of our parishioners had to swim out of their homes," he said, adding that he evacuated just before the storm and before 10 feet of water filled his rectory.

I don't know about anyone else, but all this destruction is still very tough for me to wrap my mind around. It's beyond gut-wrenching and heartbreaking.

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