Here is an update on my family. My parents made their way back to Covington yesterday. Two trees hit our home and 10 others are down on the property. One tree hit Lindsey’s room causing roof and structural damage and the other only minor damage. At our other property, Pinecroft (my grandparents’ former home), one of the largest trees on the property fell across the entire front end of the house damaging the front porch and two bedrooms. My parents were able to buy a small generator and a/c unit last night. They plan to clean up and patch the homes as much as possible and then come to Houston until utilities are available. I may be heading over there this weekend with supplies and to help with the clean up.

I’ve also heard about the condition of some of the church members in the area. One of the elders, Dr. Rick Avent is a civil and structural engineer at LSU and was interviewed by Fox News! Below is an update from Mr. Giese.

Thanks for your continued prayers…
Mark

Dear brethren,

Here is some information I received from Andy Burnett, our pastor in New Orleans, Covington and Laurel, describing conditions in those areas relevant to our brethren who were in the path of Hurricane Katrina. In addition, I have included some comments from Rick Avent, an elder living in the Baton Rouge area. We should have additional updates on Sabbath. Please keep the people in these absolutely devastated areas in your prayers this week!

Regards, KG.

FROM ANDY BURNETT . . .

We evacuated Saturday night from Slidell, LA to family in Little Rock, so we are safe. To our knowledge brethren in the New Orleans area evacuated. I could not reach anyone Sunday night, only answering machines, which was a good sign. One family, who couldn’t travel, evacuated to a shelter in Houma (south of New Orleans).

Unfortunately, several of our brethren on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain (Slidell, Mandeville, Covington) did not to evacuate. There is no way to contact them, since all of the phone lines are down. None of the news networks are focusing on these smaller areas, so we don’t really have any credible information yet.

On a positive note, our brethren to the west (Baton Rouge) are okay and power has been restored there. You may also want to contact our elder
in Baton Rouge (Rick Avent) to gain information as well. On Monday morning, Fox News contacted him for an interview regarding the structural
integrity of the superdome. Dr. Avent is a professor of Civil Engineering at LSU. It was quite a surprise for us to hear his voice on Fox News
while we were glued to the TV. I told him he missed his one opportunity to preach the gospel to millions by instead focusing on wind physics.
He could have at least thrown in a comment or two about the Sabbath, the Holy Days, or the food laws. All kidding aside, we were honored to
hear him represent us well on national TV.

Please let everyone know that we need their continued prayers. We’ll let you know as we begin to account for our members not only on the north shore, but north into Mississippi as well. Katrina slammed through all of southeastern Mississippi where many of our brethren reside.

From Rick Avent . . .

The engineers in this area have long known and warned that a major hurricane coming in on the east side of New Orleans would be catastrophic. It appears that this worst case scenario has occurred.

Here is what I know as of noon Tuesday. The eye of the hurricane passed through the heart of the New Orleans, Covington and Laurel church areas. The hardest hit areas (with respect to where brethren live) were New Orleans and points east and south of the metropolitan area, the Covington/Slidell, LA area, and the Central/southern Mississippi area. Most of the brethren evacuated before the storm. However, there were a few that did not. I know of several families in the Covington/Slidell area that did not leave. There are probably no more than a half-dozen families that stayed in one of these areas. So far, we have not been able to contact any of these people. All land and cell phone lines are down and no one except emergency workers are being allowed into these areas. The most recent word in that it may be Labor Day or later before residents will be allowed back into some of these areas. I Live in Baton Rouge which was on the western edge and received little damage. Power has been largely restored and we are hoping to be able to help some of the brethren further east as soon as contact can be made.

While the storm is over, the crisis is not. Flooding is continuing to increase in New Orleans. Supplies of food and water have been cut off in many of these areas. It could well be a month before services can be restored in some areas. In the meantime, the sanitation problems are increasing rapidly and could lead to illness among the survivors.

Of course our first concern is the safety of the people caught in this devastation. However, It also appears that property losses will be huge in most of these hardest hit areas. At this stage we do not know what the needs of the brethren will be. Once we get an assessment, I will let you know what kind of help would be most beneficial. Right now the most effective help is the prayers of all our brethren.

Rick